Welcome

Prof. Kim Fortun

Professor and Department Chair in the University of California Irvine’s Department of Anthropology. Her research and teaching focus on environmental risk and disaster. Her research has examined how people in different geographic and organizational contexts understand environmental problems, uneven distributions of environmental health risks, developments in the environmental health sciences, and factors that contribute to disaster vulnerability.

James Adams

James Adams is a PhD student in Anthropology at the University of California Irvine. He received his BA in Anthropology from the University of North Texas in 2012. James’ dissertation research examines the ways different thought collectives are producing and mobilizing data to justify and guide a shift away from fossil fuel sources of electricity in Austin, Texas. He is especially interested in drawing out the many kinds of systems and scales of activity involved in “energy transition,” highlighting the importance of data and evidentiary practices in this type of sociotechnical change. James has an emphasis in Law, Society, and Culture and a specialization in Anthropologies of Medicine, Science, and Technology.