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Rebecca D. Hardin

Associate Professor; Faculty Director for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Environmental Justice
Conservation + Restoration
rdhardin@umich.edu
(734) 647-5947
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Lightning Talk VIDEO: Conservation + Restoration

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About

Professor Hardin’s areas of interest and scientific study include human/wildlife interactions, and social and environmental change related to wildlife management, tourism, logging, and mining in equatorial Africa, especially the western Congo basin. Recent projects also focus on the increasingly intertwined practices of health, environmental management, and corporate governance in southern and eastern Africa, including sites in South Africa and Kenya. In 2013-14 she advised a student team studying environmental justice cases within the U.S., and connecting them to the international Environmental Justice Atlas. In 2014–15 she advised a student team assessing groundwater and surface water resources across the African continent, and advising GETF about how to make a better business case for water related investment by businesses in Africa. She teaches and mentors students interested in international environmental practice and policy, wildife management, human relationships to landscape, environmental justice, and global health. She also provides support for the students who are the genius behind SEAS's weekly environmental talk and music show, It’s Hot in Here, airing at noon on Fridays on WCBN FM 88.3, and with an accompanying blog and mp3 archive. The show helps researchers discuss their work with local audiences interested in environmental policy affecting Michigan, and also reach out to national and transnational audiences streaming the show via the Internet. Her recent book Transforming Ethnographic Knowledge explores the discipline of anthropology as a set of skills and tools for social change in sectors as different as business, biological conservation, conflict resolution, and biomedical care. Rebecca teaches courses in both SEAS and the Department of Anthropology, she also founded and coordinates SEAS's Environmental Justice Certificate Program for students beyond those two units working in or studying communities who are either negatively impacted by environmental harms, or experiencing inequality of access to environmental goods and ecosystem services.  Rebecca currently coordinates the Environmental Justice field of study and coordinates the Michigan Sustainability Cases initiative.

Publications

  • 2020. Human Ecology. Perceptions of Local Vulnerability and the Relative Importance of Climate Change in Rural Ecuador. Helen Gutierrez, Betty Corozo, Jessica Dimka, Joseph N. Eisenberg, James Trinity, Rebecca Hardin and Gwenyth Lee (corresponding author). Hum Ecol 48, 383–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00165-1

  • 2020. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. Leveraging Integrative Research for Inclusive Innovation. Tatiana Schreiber, Shaina Opperman, Kimmerly Nace, Audrey Pallmeyer, Nancy Love and Rebecca Hardin (corresponding author). Elem Sci Anth, 8: 12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.408 

  • 2019. Zoonoses and Public Health. The Sero-Epidemiology of Coxiella burnetii (Q fever) Across Livestock Species and Herding Contexts in Laikipia County, Kenya P.S. Larson, Leon Espira*, A. Wang,* D. M. Muloi,* S.Browne, C. Grabow*,  S. Deem, E. Fevre, R. Hardin J. Foufopoulous and Joseph Eisenberg (corresponding author).May 66 (3):316-324. doi: 10.1111/zph.12567

  • 2018. Case Studies in the Environment. R. Hardin (corresponding author), L. Boone*, L. Ultee*, E. Waisanen*, J. Newell, and J. A. Thorne*. Creation, Implementation, Iteration and Early Impacts of a Michigan Sustainability Case on Urban Farming in Detroit. Case Studies in the Environment. UC Berkeley Press. July 2018.

  • 2018. A. Karsenty and R. Hardin. Forest concessions in Central Africa: an introduction to the Special Issue. A. Karsenty and R. Hardin, Eds. Special Issue International Forestry Review Vol.19 (S2), 2017

  • 2017. A. Langeland, R. Hardin and R. Neitzel. Mercury levels in human hair and farmed fish near artisanal and  small-scale gold mining communities in the Madre de Dios River Basin, Peru. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Special Issue on Mercury and Health: Current Perspectives and Future Direction 14: 302. http://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201703.0076/v1

  • 2016. Towards a revolution in sustainability education: Vision, architecture, and assessment in a case-based approach  Rebecca Hardin, Anil Bhargava,  Cameron Bothner, Katherine Browne, Stephanie Kusano, Arman Golrokhian, Mary Wright, Pearl Zhu Zeng, Arun Agrawalc World Development Perspectives Volume 1, March 2016: 58–63

  • 2014. Hardin, R., M. Remis. and Carolyn Jost Robinson. From Abundance to Acute Marginality: Farms, Arms and Forests in the Central African Republic, 1988-2014. In Lombard, Louisa, ed, The Central African Republic (CAR) in a Hot Spot. Cultural Anthropology.

  • 2014. Depuy, W., V. Benka, J. Eisenberg, R. Hardin et al. Q Fever Risk Across a Dynamic, Heterogenous Landscape in Laikipia County Kenya. Ecohealth (published online March 7, 2014)

  • 2013. Cook, S. and Hardin, R. Performing Royalty in Contemporary Africa. In Cultural Anthropology 28, no.2: 227-251.

  • 2011. Hardin, R. Competing Cultures of Conservation. Invited Essay for the 25th Anniversary Special Issue of Conservation Biology Volume 25, No. 6: 1098-1102.

  • 2011. Hardin, R. Collective Contradictions of “Corporate” Environmental Conservation. In FOCAAL: Journal of Global and Historic Anthropology 60: 41-60. 2011. Hardin, R. Concessionary Politics: Property, Patronage and Political Rivalry in Central African Forest Management. In Current Anthropology 52 (S3): S113-S125.

Read more publications here.

 

Research
  • Pending: Co-PI with Johannes W. Schwank, James and Judith Street Professor of Chemical Engineering, Neil Dasgupta, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Andrej Lenert, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering;  Galen B. Fisher, NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation: DCheM: Distributed solar energy harvesting for carbon-free ammonia synthesis.

  • 2021: Co-PI with David Porter (History), Melissa Duhaime (EEB) and others on the Detroit River Story Lab Project for $300k from Graham Institute for Sustainability, Humanities Research Collaborative.

  • 2019: Co-PI on $10,000  from University of Michigan Graham Institute Catalyst Grant with Lutgarde Raskin (Civil and Environmental Engineering)for parallel partnerships between researchers and water treatment specialists working in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Lambaréné, Gabon

  • 2017-20: Co-PI with Nancy Love, Krista Wigginton (UM Civil and Environmental Engineering), Diana Aga (SUNY Binghamton) and Abraham Noe Hayes (Rich Earth Institute Vermont) on Exploring Nutrient-Energy-Water Cycles. for NSF INFEWS grant of $3 million to explore safety and social acceptability of urine derived fertilizers in U.S. agriculture (and urine diverting toilets on our campus/in our communities)

  • 2016-20: Co-PI on $1.7 million grant from University of Michigan Transforming Learning for the Third Century Fund to create new forms of multimodal case based learning on an open access multilingual platform for global use (www.learngala.com)

  • 2013-15: Internal funds from French Research Institute CIRAD and University of Michigan for the cost ($11,000) of publishing a special issue of International Forestry Review on comparative analysis of tropical forest timber concessions.

  • 2007-2013: Co-PI with SNRE colleagues Tom Lyon, Dan Brown, John Vandermeer, and Rick Riolo (Arun Agrawal, PI). “Environmental governance, forests and logging concessions: the effects of institutional complexity on forest systems, cover, and change in Central Africa.” Supported by $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Coupled Human and Natural Systems Initiative.

  • 2006: Archival research in Europe on Colonial History of concession systems in the upper Sangha region of equatorial Africa. Supported by $12,000 Rackham Faculty Improvement Grant, University of Michigan.

  • 2005: Research on Concessionary Politics in Southern Africa and Coordination of Corporate Lives Panel at the American Ethnological Society Meetings. Center for International Business Education. Supported by $5000 grant from the University of Michigan.

  • 2001 & 2002: Grants (totaling $13,000) Phase I of Sangha River Network Project. Yale Center for International and Area Studies/ Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Education

PhD, Yale University (anthropology)

MPhil, Yale University (history, anthropology)

BA, Brown University (program in literary and social theory)

Affiliations

Steering Committee Member, elected in at-large capacity, Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, a consortium of NGO, Zoo, and Animal protection interests, Washington, DC (1999-2008).

In the News
Michigan Sustainability Case: A Tale of Two (Polluted) Cities
February 20, 2023

Michigan Sustainability Case: A Tale of Two (Polluted) Cities

While graduate students at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), dual-degree classmates Cecilia Garibay (MS/MPP ’22) and Dolores...

SEAS alumna Cecilia Garibay: Moving forward
January 9, 2023

SEAS alumna Cecilia Garibay: Moving forward

Within a month after taking a new position as project coordinator at Moving Forward Network (MFN) in Los Angeles, University of Michigan School for Environment and...

Detroit River Story Lab embarks on Skiff and Schooner program for second summer
June 21, 2022

Detroit River Story Lab embarks on Skiff and Schooner program for second summer

The Detroit River Story Lab’s Skiff and Schooner Program is setting sail for its second summer, this time accommodating even more students in its quest to foster...

WILD RHINOS project group
April 1, 2022

SEAS alum's master's project grows into a career

As a kid, SEAS alum Ryan Horwitz (BS ’19, MS ’21) loved spending time outdoors. One of his earliest and fondest memories is the time he spent playing and running around...

Dr. Rebecca Hardin named SEAS Faculty Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
February 22, 2022

Prof. Rebecca Hardin named SEAS Faculty Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Longtime SEAS faculty member Dr. Rebecca Hardin, who teaches in the Environmental Justice specialization, has been named the Faculty Director of Justice, Equity...

What lies beneath: Detroit River narratives emerge through schooner trips, boat building
December 17, 2021

What lies beneath: Detroit River narratives emerge through schooner trips, boat building

DETROIT—Helping to hoist the sail on the tall ship Inland Seas was a unique experience for Leya Phinisee, a sixth grader from Flint. She and her dad, Jason, joined one of...

Growing Gala, SEAS' Online Learning Platform, with NSF Support
November 4, 2021

Growing the SEAS Gala Learning Platform with NSF Support

The School for Environment and Sustainability celebrates notable funding successes that advance environmental and sustainability-related learning in the classroom...

University of Michigan doctoral student Matthew Vedrin (MS '16, PhD '22) and city colleagues (not shown here) sample water for testing during routine summer flushing
November 3, 2021

As Big Tech Faces Scrutiny, 24 Universities Get $3.6M from Major Foundations to Fuel Inclusive Public Interest Technology

University of Michigan Receives Major Philanthropic Grant Funding for Public Interest Technology, A Vote of Confidence to Fuel Inclusive Practices As Movement Expands...

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