Contested Illnesses Research Group
Brown University , Providence RI

Stephanie's research focused on environmental justice, environmental health, and political-economic contexts surrounding energy development, particularly in rural communities in the American West. Stephanie primarily examines impacts of uranium mining and milling, but she has begun to interrogate hydraulic fracking's environmental sociological outcomes as well. Her dissertation work focused on emergent social movements surrounding the Piñon Ridge Uranium Mill in southwestern Colorado. As the first such mill sited in the US since the end of the Cold War, Stephanie contends that observing related environmental justice, health, and grassroots movement contexts helps social scientists identify and anticipate sociological outcomes likely to emerge as societies re-examine energy development options in an era of climate change mitigation. Her publications include: "Left in the Dust: Uranium's Legacy and the Victims of Mill Tailings Exposure in Monticello, Utah" in Society and Natural Resources, which examined uranium's environmental legacy on the Colorado Plateau; and "Community Development among Toxic Tailings: An Interactional Case Study of Community Health and Extralocal Institutions," which examines interactions between grassroots movements and responses from public institutions, such as the ATSDR. Currently, Stephanie teaches graduate seminars in natural resource sociology and environmental health at Brown and is working on several articles and a book manuscript.