Melissa Checker PhD, New York University: U.S. social movements, race, class and ethnicity in the U.S., urban environmentalism, environmental justice and climate justice.

Academic

Dr. Checker received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology in 2002 from New York University, where she also received her MA and MPhil. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Her most recent book, Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town (NYU Press, 2005) won the 2007 Society for Humanistic Anthropology's Book Award. Using ethnographic research, this book tells the story of the tenacious activism of an African-American neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia, in fighting the envirionmental degradation of their community. Checker also co-edited (with Maggie Fishman) Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power and Public Life ( Columbia U Press, 2004), which presents ten studies of activist groups across the country—from transgender activists in New York City to South Asian teenagers in the Silicon Valley to evangelical Christians and Palestinian Americans.

Checker teaches the Department's introductory course, Urban Poverty and Affluence, as well as courses on Urban Environments and Environmentalism, Contemporary Urban Theory, and Fieldwork in Urban Studies. She is the co-coordinator of the Urban Studies Internship Program and the Faculty Adviser to the Urban Studies Club.

Checker's current research focuses on environmental justice and New York City's recent efforts to address climate change.

Contact

Office: Powdermaker Rm. 250
Telephone: (718) 997 5148
Email: melissa.checker@qc.cuny.edu

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