Dr. Justin Sean Myers

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Office Location: Dyson 378

Phone: (845) 575-3000 ext. 2423

Email: Justin.Myers@Marist.edu

Personal Web Page: http://justinseanmyers.wordpress.com/

Degrees Held

B.A. Sociology, Sonoma State University

M.A. Sociology, San Diego State University

Ph.D. Sociology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York 

Bio

Born and raised in California, I came to Marist College in 2013 by way of Brooklyn, New York, where I completed my dissertation on the food justice organization East New York Farms!, documenting their efforts to counter institutional racism and planned underdevelopment through community-led urban agriculture.  As an environmental sociologist, my work investigates how cultural, political, and economic relations structure human interaction with the environment. Drawing upon the environmental justice and food justice literature I explore how the social organization of power between individuals, groups, and institutions shapes the distribution of environmental benefits and costs along the groupings of race, class and gender.  Additionally, my work concentrates on how communities are responding to socio-environmental change and the conflicts, between and within communities, corporations, and the state over the conditions of change.  Outside of work you will find me hiking, biking, kayaking, and foraging in the lovely Hudson Valley.

Interests

In general, my work focuses on three areas:

(1) How people are building local food systems that realize environmental sustainability, social equity, and community-based economic development (e.g. Just Sustainability).

(2) Environmental justice and food justice movements and how communities are employing grassroots organizing to counter institutional classism and racism.

(3) The conflict between community based organizations, the state, and corporations over how best to combat food inequities in the conventional food system, particularly in communities designated as food deserts.

Publications

2015. With Joshua Sbicca. "Bridging Good Food and Good Jobs: From Secession to Confrontation in Alternative Food Politics." Geoforum 61: 17-26.

2013.  “The Logic of the Gift: The Possibilities and Limitations of Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Alternative.” Agriculture & Human Values 30(3): 405-415.

2013. “The Sociology of Food” in 10 Lessons in Introductory Sociology, eds. Kenneth A. Gould and Tammy L. Lewis.  New York: Oxford.

2011. Introduction to “Who Owns America?: Minority Land and Community Security” by Winona LaDuke, Pp. 417-419 in People, Power, Politics (Eleventh edition), ed. Alfonso Gaston.  Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.

2011.  “Ecofeminism/Ecological Feminism.” In Green Ethics and Philosophy, edited by Julie Newman.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Research Interests

Environmental justice and food justice movements; local and alternative food movements; urban agriculture, alternative economies, social inequality, social justice.

Affiliations

American Sociological Association

American Association of Geographers

Eastern Sociological Society.

Presentations

2014.  “The Limits of Food Justice: Tensions Between Philanthropic Dependency, Market Dependency, and Movements for Social Change.”  Annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems.  San Francisco, CA.

2014.  “Invisible Food Economies in the Community Gardens of East New York, Brooklyn.” Annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.  Baltimore, Maryland.

2013.  “Wal-Mart and Michelle Obama: Recuperating the Food Justice Movement through the Discourse of Food Deserts.”  Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.  New York, New York.

2013.  “East New York Farms!: Food Justice as a Culture of Resistance.” Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers.  Los Angeles, California.