Emeritus Professor
Susan Stonich has several interrelated research and teaching interests: the conflicts and contradictions between economic development and environmental conservation efforts in coastal zones in the context of climate change; environmental justice; vulnerability and resilience to climate related hazards and disasters; international tourism; and aquaculture (particularly shrimp and shellfish farming). She works primarily in Central America and the Caribbean but has also worked in South-East Asia. She uses a political ecology approach in her research that integrates the perspectives of political economy and human ecology and determines the linkages between spatial, geopolitical, ecosystem, and temporal scales. Her research focuses particularly on several types of “securities;” social network security, household livelihood security, health/food security, and environmental security. She has served on many national and international panels and committees including the National Academies of Science/National Research Council Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change (1997-2003) and the Scientific Advisory Committee, Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (2003 – 2006). She now serves as a member of the United States Climate Change Science Program, Human Impacts of Climate Change Advisory Committee.
Specialization
Ecological Anthropology, Economic Globalization, Human-Environment Systems, Shrimp Farming, Tourism and Conservation