Kayleigh Ward and colleagues publish article in Environmental Sociology
Kayleigh Ward and colleagues publish article in Environmental Sociology
Kayleigh Ward, research faculty and lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder, recently published a paper with her colleagues in Environmental Sociology titled “Values at the tap: how organizational culture shapes water unaffordability and environmental justice in U.S. cities.” The article uses Schlosberg’s three justice dimensions with Schwartz’s human values theory to examine how organizational values inside municipal water utilities shape pricing and customer assistance. The authors conducted a series of interviews and found that policies that name affordability as an objective, institutionalize participation, and pair ecological mandates with affordability funding are imperative to environmental justice in terms of the water supply.
Edith-Marie Green, a PhD candidate in population healths sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, recently published a commentary titled “Why Everyone Should Care About Population Aging (And What’s Being Done About It in Terms of Policy” in Science Policy in a SNAP. SNAP, the Scientist Network for Advancing Policy, is a nationwide, non-partisan, grassroots gathering of science policy-minded early career researchers from across the United States. Green’s piece addresses rapid population aging, ageism, and potential policy and advocacy approaches to address the aging crisis, ending with a call to action to promote healthy intergenerational relationships and supports.
Aysha Bodenhamer, Manager of Sustainability and Associate Professor in the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences at Radford University, recently spoke on a panel at Coastal Carolina University’s 2026 Sustainability Symposium. Titled “Sustaining Our Shared Spaces: Stewardship of Public Lands and the Next Generation,” the panel covered a wide range of matters such as preserving public lands at the Waccamaw National Wildlife refuge, fostering indigenous graveyards in Galloway, New Jersey, operating on the New River banks in Radford, Virginia, and utilizing public lands on university grounds to benefit the campus and community of Kapolei, Hawaii.
Alex Theophilus, a PhD student in sociology with a focus on environment & community at Utah State University, was recently featured in the university’s WhyArtSci interview series. The series highlights exceptional students in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. Alex has published research on rural community wellbeing, the community impacts of tourism and amenity migration, and the sociology of food & agriculture. Much of Alex’s current research focuses on rural community development and the impacts of population growth and economic transitions on high amenity rural communities. On campus, Alex plays a big role in USU’s Community and Natural Resources Institute (CANRI).
Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, a PhD candidate in Environmental Sociology at Utah State University, was recently awarded Achievement of the Year at the 2026 Robins Awards. The awards recognize students, faculty, staff and organizations for their achievements, leadership and service. Mufti’s academic and community engagements are rooted in sustainability, environmental justice, and the lived experiences of marginalized populations, including immigrant communities in the United States and environmentally vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. Mufti’s PhD research examines how climate change and environmental issues shape Utahns’ migration decisions and fertility planning.
Chris Morris, post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Iowa State University, was recently interviewed for Iowa Podcast. Morris spoke about farmer trauma and risk aversion. Morris’s research shows stress from farming has a compounding effect over time and becomes mentally destructive. The resulting trauma not only results in risk averse behavior and higher than average suicide rates, but is passed down. In the podcast, he also touched on intergenerational expectations and the mental health gap in rural Iowa.
Rebecca Schewe from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and Rick Walsh from Syracuse University recently published a policy brief with the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs Center for Policy Research. Titled “The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Deepen the Farm Crisis, Not Solve It,” the brief addresses how the bill’s changes to agricultural subsidy programs will disproportionately benefit large farms and non-farming investors, accelerating farm loss and consolidation across the United States. The authors propose four reforms policymakers should enact to prevent these devastating consequences, including tightening payment limits and closing loopholes, reinstating income caps, narrowing and enforcing “actively engaged in farming” requirements, and ensuring new base acres go to small and beginning farmers.
Emily Southard, PhD Candidate, Rural Sociology & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University, and Florence Becot, Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor Agricultural Safety and Health Program Lead at Pennsylvania State University, recently published an article in the Journal of Agromedicine titled “Caregiving Along the Life Course Among Farming Households.” The study used publicly available survey of 704 farming caregivers in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest to understand the nature of caregiving in this population. They found that caregiving has a variety of impacts based on sociodemographic characteristics, and emphasized that they add to the growing scholarship challenging stereotypes that farming communities are socially tight-knit, self-sufficient, and do not want help.
Erin Gaede from the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently published an articled titled “Housing financial stress and community well-being: Is there an urban-rural dimension” in the Journal of Rural Studies. This research uses a mixed-method research design to examine how housing financial stress impacts community well-being with a focus on rural areas in the U.S. Gaede and her coauthors combine descriptive and statistical analyses with key informant interviews and multiple measures of community well-being. Two key findings came out of the study: housing financial stress is more common in urban areas and among renters, and its impact on community well-being varies across the urban-rural spectrum and by well-being measure. These nuances highlight the need for caution when generalizing about housing financial stress and its effects on the larger community.
Angie Carter, associate professor at Michigan Technological University, has been elected to a 3-year term to serve as the rural sociologist on the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (NCR-SARE) Administrative Council. NCR-SARE is a USDA-funded grant program whose mission is to strengthen communities, increase farmer/rancher economic viability, and improve the environment by supporting research and education. NCR-SARE’s Administrative Council is responsible for operating the program by appointing a host institution, defining policy, issuing calls for grant proposals, and making decisions about funding proposals.