I study the ecological information contained in natural accumulations of bones (death assemblages). Through a multidisciplinary approach that brings together ecology, wildlife management, conservation biology, paleobiology, and GIS, my research explores the ecological data contained in bone accumulations from the modern, sub-fossil, and fossil realms. Using fieldwork, quantitative analyses, and statistical modeling, I am refining our understanding of the biological data that is contained in bone accumulations and providing new tools for recovering those data from recent, historical, and fossil accumulations.
Faculty & Staff
Regular Faculty
Julia S. Carlson
Associate Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
240 ARTSCI
Teri A. Jacobs
Asst Professor/ Adj Ann/ Director of EVST Undergraduate Studies/ A&S Geography & Environmental Studies, School of Environment and Sustainability
401G Braunstein Hall
Stephen F. Matter
Associate Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
731I Rieveschl Hall
Department of Biological Sciences, ECBR, SBBE
Ecology; Population Ecology; Metapopulation Dynamics; Dispersal Behavior; Community Patterns and Dynamics; Insect Plant Interactions; Modelling
Daniel Murphy
Associate Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
4th Braunstein Hall
Kenneth Petren
Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
800C Rieveschl Hall
Robert A Skipper
History and Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Science, School of Environment and Sustainability
261C ARTSCI
Skipper's main research focuses on the origins and development of evolutionary genetics. In particular, he works on problems about the structure of biological controversies, theory change, theory/model assessment, theory/model structure/interpretation, evolutionary dynamics, biological explanation, and epistemology of biological experiments.
In addition, Skipper has interests in environmental philosophy, philosophy of food, and obesity science.
David S Stradling
Zane L. Miller Professor of Urban History; Interim Director of the School of Environment and Sustainability, School of Environment and Sustainability
322 ARTSCI
David is the author of several books, including The Nature of New York: An Environmental History of the Empire State (Cornell University Press, 2010), Making Mountains: New York City and the Catskills (University of Washington Press, 2007), Smokestacks and Progressives: Environmentalists, Engineers and Air Quality in America, 1881-1951 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), and, with Richard Stradling, Where the River Burned: Carl Stokes and the Struggle to Save Cleveland (Cornell University Press, 2015). He is currently writing a global history of dredging.
David earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, after having earned a BA and MAT from Colgate University. Living in Clifton, he raised two daughters with his partner Jodie, and he commutes to campus on foot through Burnet Woods.
Sarah Janette Sturmer
Instructor - Adjunct Ann, School of Environment and Sustainability
Amy Townsend-Small
Professor of Environmental Science, School of Environment and Sustainability
605 Geology-Physics Building
Affiliate Faculty
Susan E Allen
Associate Professor, Department Head, NAGPRA Director, School of Environment and Sustainability
458 Braunstein Hall
Affiliate Faculty, Environmental Studies
Affiliate Faculty, European Studies
Dr. Allen's current research collaborations investigate the role of agriculture and climate change in the emergence of social inequality in the Aegean (Greece) and Balkans (Albania, Croatia), the transition to agriculture in southern Europe, and the historical and political ecology of Mediterranean wetlands. As part of her research projects on these themes, she also works with archaeobotanical materials to interrogate formation processes that affect assemblage composition and interpretive potential.
As Co-Director (with Ilir Gjipali, Institute of Archaeology, Tirana) of the Southern Albania Neolithic Archaeological Project (SANAP), she is working toward publication of an edited monograph on their results from surface survey, coring, and excavation at the Early Neolithic site of Vashtëmi and survey and / or coring at several other Early Neolithic sites in the region.
In cooperation with China Shelton (ACOR), she conducts archeobotanical recovery and analysis for the Iklaina Archaeological Project, directed by Michael Cosmopoulos (UMSL), focused on excavation of the Mycenaean site of Iklaina in southwestern Greece.
In the lab, she has been collaborating with graduate student Martha Wendel (MA 2019) to complete analysis and publication of seed and charcoal remains from two sites in northern Albania excavated as part of the Projekti Arkeologjik i Shkodrës (PASH), directed by Michael Galaty (U. Michigan).
She was recently awarded funding from the University Research Council to facilitate her collaboration with the Cetina Valley Survey (CeVaS), directed by Helena Tomas (U. Zagreb). Her sub-project within CeVaS focuses on documentation of human-environment landscape dynamics in the valley.
Dr. Allen encourages potential graduate students, particularly those with interest in palaeoethnobotany, archaeobotany, ethnobotany, or environmental archaeology, to reach out to her directly.
Richard Allan Beck
Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
207 Braunstein Hall
Michael T Booth
Research Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
820D Rieveschl Hall
Jeffrey L Brewer
Asst Professor - Educator, School of Environment and Sustainability
400A Braunstein Hall
Xi Chen
Assoc Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
Braunstein Hall
Brooke E Crowley
Professor, Geology Graduate Director, Stable Isotope Ecology, Quaternary Paleoecology, School of Environment and Sustainability
503 Geology-Physics Building
Diego F. Cuadros
Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
401C Braunstein Hall
Steve Paul Depoe
Professor - Adj Ann, School of Environment and Sustainability
4231A CLIFTCT
Aaron Diefendorf
Professor, Organic and Isotope Geochemistry, School of Environment and Sustainability
610 Geology-Physics Building
Laura D. Dudley Jenkins
Professor of Political Science, Faculty Affiliate WGSS and Asian Studies , School of Environment and Sustainability
CLIFTCT
Her book Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India (Penn Press 2019) won the Hubert Morken Best Book Prize from the Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). A study of mass conversions to Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism and ongoing efforts to prevent conversions, Jenkins reveals how "religious freedom" arguments and laws have actually undermined the religious freedom of women, lower castes, and religious minorities.
Jenkins' book Identity and Identification in India: Defining the Disadvantaged (Routledge, 2003, 2009) examines competing demands for affirmative action on the basis of caste, religion, class, and gender and the ways the government identifies recipients through the courts, census, and official certificates. Her research as a Fulbright New Century Scholar in South Africa and India resulted in Affirmative Action Matters: Creating Opportunities for Students Around the World, co-edited with Michele S. Moses (Routledge 2014).
In her articles, she analyzes religious freedom and conversion, competing minorities’ claims for affirmative action, colonial and contemporary government anthropology, the role of social science in anti-discrimination law, reserved legislative seats for women, and the role of culture and the arts in sustainable development.
Jenkins' book chapters examine anti-Muslim political communication in the US and India, religious family laws, mass religious conversion as protest, comparative affirmative action, minority rights, historically Dalit colleges, anxious secularism, women and development, regulation of religion, and methodological diversity in political science.
In addition to two Fulbrights, Dr. Jenkins has received fellowships from the Dartmouth Humanities Center and the United States Institute of Peace.
Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.
Hubert Morken Best Book Award
APSA Religion and Politics Section
Affirmative action matters: Creating opportunities for students around the world. (with Michele S. Moses). New York: Routledge, 2014.
Identity and Identification in India: Defining the Disadvantaged. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon 2003, reissued in paperback by Routledge 2009.
Nicholas P Dunning
Professor , School of Environment and Sustainability
Muhammad U. Faruque
Inayat & Ishrat Malik Assistant Professor and Taft Center Fellow (AY 23-24), School of Environment and Sustainability
728C Old Chemistry Building
While his past research has explored modern and premodern conceptions of selfhood and identity and their bearing on ethics, religion, and culture, his current project investigates whether or not Sufi philosophy and practice—as articulated in the School of Ibn ʿArabī—support and foster an active engagement toward the planet's well-being and an ecologically viable way of life and vision. He is also at work on a book on A.I. and the ethical challenges of information technology. He edited volumes include From the Divine to the Human: Contemporary Islamic Thinkers on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic (Routledge, 2023) and A Cultural History of South Asian Literature, Volume 3: The Early Modern Age (1400-1700) (co-edited with S. Nair).
His interests and expertise encompass history and theory of subjectivity, environmental humanities, religion and climate change, cross-cultural philosophy, gender hermeneutics, Sufism, Perso-Arabic mystical literature, Islamic philosophy and ethics, history and philosophy of science, Islamic Psychology, and Graeco-Arabica. He teaches courses on Islam and social justice issues, climate change, mysticism, philosophy, as well as on selfhood and identity.
In his personal life, he loves gardening (plant life fascinates him), spending time in nature, travelling, cooking, photography, and watching movies. He also has a passion for classical Indian (raag) and Persian music, and for art, music, and poetry in general.
He is also affiliated with the departments of Philosophy, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Environmental Studies, and the program in Religious Certificate.
Bob Newton Hyland
Associate Professor Educator, School of Environment and Sustainability
350E ARTSCI
Kristen Iversen
Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
214B ARTSCI
Latonya Jackson
Research Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
422 QA Rieveschl Hall
Lucinda P Lawson
School of Environment and Sustainability
I teach in the introductory Environmental Science course series (EVST 1012) where we tackle the environmental challenges of our times.
Lin Liu
Professor, Graduate Director, Co-Director of GIS Center, School of Environment and Sustainability
400E Braunstein Hall
Eduardo Joseph Martinez
Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
5254 CLIFTCT
My research is in democratic theory and focuses on standards for evaluating institutions and practices within democracies, such as administrative agencies, civic education, representation, and political partisanship. For more on my research, please see my website: eduardojmartinez.com
Eric Franklin Maurer
Assistant Professor Educator, School of Environment and Sustainability
Braunstein Hall
Jack Michael Mewhirter
Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
Crosley Tower
His published and ongoing research focuses on two, distinct topics. His main area of research focuses on the study of complex governance systems (generally in the context of water governance): governance structures where decision making authority is delegated to multiple organizations that (often) collectively make policy decisions across a set of interdependent decision making venues (or “forums”). His research in this area generally attempts to answer two, related questions: 1) How do organizations build political influence across the system to better influence the forums in which they participate? 2) How does forum interdependence affect the policy decisions made in the related forums?
His second area of interest focuses on the evaluation of current policies of pressing public importance. Here, he utilizes a variety of quantitative techniques to assess the causal impact of public policies and tease out whether and to what extent they can be considered effective.
Autumn Leigh Miller
Associate Professor Educator, School of Environment and Sustainability
4265 CLIFTCT
Joshua H Miller
Asst Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
509 Geology-Physics Building
Carolyn Kelley Patterson
Asst Professor - Visiting, School of Environment and Sustainability
Kevin N Raleigh
Department Head, Associate Professor Educator, School of Environment and Sustainability
401-I Braunstein Hall
Shaunak Sastry
Associate Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
4272 CLIFTCT
Tomasz F Stepinski
Thomas Jefferson Chair Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
215 Braunstein Hall
Yujie Sun
Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
722 Rieveschl Hall
Yujie Sun (孙宇杰) received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Fudan University in 2005. He then pursued graduate studies in inorganic photochemistry with Prof. Claudia Turro at The Ohio State University and obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2010. Subsequently, he joined the group of Prof. Christopher J. Chang at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral scholar, working on renewable energy catalysis. Yujie started his independent career as an Assistant Professor at Utah State University in 2013, moved to the University of Cincinnati as an Associate Professor in 2018, and was promoted to Professor in 2023. His group is interested in developing and understanding inexpensive materials and complexes for energy catalysis and biomedical applications.
Eric J Tepe
Assistant Professor
Curator of the Herbarium
,
School of Environment and Sustainability
703B Rieveschl Hall
Plant systematics, including taxonomy, phylogenetics, biogeography, and diversification of “giant genera” – those with over 1000 species – including Piper (Piperaceae) and Solanum (Solanaceae). Evolution of ant-plant associations. Visit my webpage for more details. Click here for the CINC herbarium webpage.
Susanna T.Y. Tong
Professor, Director of 2+2 Program in Geography, A&S Geography and Environmental Studies, School of Environment and Sustainability
400D Braunstein Hall
Jennifer Wohlfarth
Educator Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
5147 CLIFTCT
Now a full professor (in the educator/teaching track), she teaches a wide range of courses across the curriculum: Feature Writing & In-Depth Reporting, Magazine Writing, Environmental Journalism, Science & Nature Writing, Travel Writing, Women in Journalism, Advanced Magazine Writing, Magazine Publishing, and International Field Study in Journalism -- all courses she created and developed. She was the department's first director of undergraduate studies, from 2012-2019, and has served as faculty adviser for several student journalism groups, including the UC chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists (UC-SPJ), Association of Black Journalists (UC-ABJ) and a handful of student-run online magazines.
Professor Wohlfarth’s work has been published in numerous national magazines, covering topics ranging from art/design, architecture, agriculture and animals to business, environmental and social issues, nature/science and travel writing. She has been honored by numerous reporting awards from the Society of Professional Journalists for her work in feature/magazine writing, beat reporting and lifestyle reporting.
Her journalism career began shortly after she completed an undergraduate degree in creative writing (composition) at the University of Evansville (Indiana). She landed a full-time job in journalism—at a horse magazine in Texas—and quickly fell in love with reporting. She is a former staff editor/managing editor/executive editor at several national magazines—including the Cincinnati-based design publications HOW Magazine and I.D. (International Design) Magazine—and is a longtime contributing editor to Cincinnati Magazine. She is vice-president of the Greater Cincinnati Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and an active member of the national SPJ, the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) and, most recently, the National Association of Science Writers.
Professor Wohlfarth has been honored with numerous teaching/advising awards, including the UC Department of English William C. Boyce Award for Excellence in Teaching, the SPJ David L. Eshelman Outstanding Campus Adviser Award and the University of Cincinnati Honors Program’s Excellence in Teaching Award—all honors based on nominations from her students and advisees. In 2022, she was nominated by a student for the prestigious UC George Barbour Award for Good Faculty-Student Relations.
She has a keen interest in active-learning techniques and has co-presented on SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning) topics at numerous conferences, including the International Lilly Conference for College Teaching and the International Society of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Annual Conference. She is an advocate of innovative, student-centered instruction methods, and has frequently been tapped to lead training sessions for faculty on active-learning techniques, contemplative teaching strategies and methods for increasing student engagement. Her professional work and her involvement in teaching faculty-led study-abroad courses for the UC Honors Program have enabled her to travel to and write about fascinating places around the world, including Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Namibia and Iceland.
Yurena Yanes
Assistant Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability
520 Geology-Physics Building
Staff
Abbey Erickson
Program Coordinator, School of Environment and Sustainability
ARTSCI
Ashley D. Hutchison
Business Administrator, School of Environment and Sustainability
4241A CLIFTCT
Ekaterina Katzarova
Program Manager, School of Environment and Sustainability
CLIFTCT
Amanda M. Powell
Financial Administrator 2, School of Environment and Sustainability
5216 CLIFTCT
Kristin Nicole Rice
Financial Administrator 1, School of Environment and Sustainability
360C ARTSCI