Tracy Perkins

School of Social Transform

Asst Professor

Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 6403

Biography:

Tracy Perkins is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Transformation. She specializes in social inequality, social movements and the environment through a focus on environmental justice activism. Her forthcoming book, Movement Matters: Protest, Policy and Three Decades of Environmental Justice Activism (University of California Press), examines the political evolution of the California environmental justice movement from the 1980s to the mid 2010s.

In addition to her academic writing, Dr. Perkins documents environmental justice activism for public audiences. Examples include Voices from the Valley: Environmental Justice in California’s San Joaquin Valley, In Her Own Words: Remembering Teresa de Anda, Pesticides Activist (1959-2014), the Buzzard Point Oral History Project in Washington DC, and a project-in-development to create a digital archive and multi-media storytelling website on a 1990s era anti-nuclear waste landfill campaign along the lower Colorado River.

Dr. Perkins previously served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Howard University. She has a B.A. in Development Studies from UC Berkeley, a M.S. in Community Development from UC Davis, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz. See more of her work at tracyperkins.org.

Education:

Ph.D. Sociology Department. University of California, Santa Cruz, 2015

M.S. Community Development Graduate Group, Human and Community Development Department. University of California, Davis, 2008

B.A. Development Studies, International and Area Studies Teaching Program. University of California, Berkeley, 2003

Research Website:

http://www.tracyperkins.org

Research Interests:

Social movements, environmental justice, agriculture, digital humanities, social inequality

Publications:

Refereed Journal Articles

DiValli, Jesse and Tracy Perkins. 2020. ““They Know They’re Not Coming Back”: Resilience Through Displacement in the Riskscape of Southwest Washington, DC.” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy, and Society. Retrieved August 17, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsaa012)
Sze, Julie, Tracy Perkins, Julie Anand and Netra Chhetri. 2018. “Stories from the Field: Public Engagement through the Environmental Humanities and Allied Disciplines.” Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities 5(2):49-73.
Perkins, Tracy. 2012. “Women’s Pathways Into Activism: Rethinking the Women’s Environmental Justice Narrative in California’s San Joaquin Valley.” Organization & Environment, 25(1):76-94. (Winner of the 2011 Graduate Student Paper Competition for the Conflict, Social Action and Change Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems)
Perkins, Tracy and Julie Sze. 2011. “Images from the Central Valley.” Boom: A Journal of California 1(1):70-80.

Book Chapters

Perkins, Tracy and Aaron Soto-Karlin. 2018. “Situating Global Policies within Local Realities: Climate Conflict from California to Latin America.” Pp. 102-123 in Sustainability: Approaches to Environmental Justice and Social Power edited by J. Sze. New York: NYU Press.
Perkins, Tracy. 2015. “On Becoming a Public Sociologist: Amplifying Women’s Voices in the Quest for Environmental Justice.” Pp. 88-92 in Sociologists in Action on Inequalities: Race, Class and Gender edited by S. K. White, J. M. White and K. O. Korgen. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.

Digital Publications

Perkins, Tracy, ed. 2015. In Her Own Words: Remembering Teresa De Anda, Pesticides Activist (1959-2014). Retrieved April 22, 2018 (https://rememberingteresa.org)
Perkins, Tracy and Lindsey Dillon. 2015. “Gonzales.” Critical Sustainabilities: Analyzing Competing Discourses of Urban Development in Northern California, Miriam Greenberg (ed). Humanities Research Institute, University of California, August 1. Retrieved October 12, 2015 (https://critical-sustainabilities.ucsc.edu/gonzales-ca/)
Perkins, Tracy. 2014. “The Environmental Justice Legacy of the United Farm Workers of America: Stories from the Birthplace of Industrial Agriculture.” Tales of Hope and Caution in Environmental Justice. The Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes, Humanities for the Environment, August 10. Retrieved June 26, 2018 (http://hfe-observatories.org/project/the-environmental-justice-legacy-of-the-united-farm-workers-of-america-stories-from-the-birthplace-of-industrial-agriculture/)
Perkins, Tracy. 2013. Voices from the Valley: Environmental Justice in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Retrieved April 22, 2018 (http://www.voicesfromthevalley.org/) (First edition published as Twentyfive Stories from the Central Valley at http://www.twentyfive.ucdavis.edu in 2009)

Book Reviews

Perkins, Tracy. 2012. Review of Kivalina: A Climate Change Story in Race, Gender and Class, 19(1-2)177-179.

Other

DiValli, Jesse and Tracy Perkins. 2020. “Rhonda Hamilton: Community Leader and Public Housing Advocate in Southwest Washington D.C.” Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, Urban Waterways Newsletter, 10.
2018. “Voices from the Valley: A Case Study in Digital Sociology and the Digital Humanities.” Academic and Research Skills Collection, SAGE Video, SAGE Publications Inc.
2018. “How to Make an Academic Website.” Academic and Research Skills Collection, SAGE Video, SAGE Publications Inc. Retrieved June 27, 2018 (http://methods.sagepub.com/video/sharing-and-publishing-research-skills-for-success)
Perkins, Tracy. 2008. “On the Frontlines of the Environmental Justice Movement,” REALEYES (7):19-22.

Expertise Areas:

Activism and Social Movements

Equity, Justice and Sustainability

Digital Humanities

Agri-Food Systems

Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Politics

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