"Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology

It's no secret that here at the College we as students are blessed with some extremely talented faculty. But what many students are not aware of is our professors' impressive work outside of the Muhlen-bubble. A worthy example of this can be found in Dr. Tammy L. Lewis. Dr. Lewis has been a member of the Sociology and Anthropology department here at the College since 2001. She teaches many of the major's course requirements as well as electives on Environmental Sociology and Social Movements.

She has also co-taught "Environmental and Cultural Conservation in Latin America" with Dr. Niesenbaum of the Biology department, a course which extends students' knowledge through a field portion in Costa Rica, and has worked as a part of the President's Greening Committee.

Dr. Lewis acknowledged that her interest in environmental sociology began with her undergraduate thesis at Vassar College, which centered on environmental issues at the New Jersey shore. Her interest on a more global level developed during her time as a graduate school student at the University of California at Davis.

As a grad student, Dr. Lewis spent time at the United Nations' Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and has pursued her interest in Latin American environmental issues ever since.

Since 1992, Dr. Lewis has continued her field work in Latin America through spending time in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. The College awarded Dr. Lewis with a Fulbright Award and the Class of '32 Research Award two years ago, with which she traveled to Ecuador for research purposes regarding the impact of transnational funding on the Ecuadorian environmental movement sector and the country's rural and urban environments. She is currently writing a book on the Ecuadorian Environmental Movement.

This publication will be far from a first for Dr. Lewis. She has released numerous publications in the past eight years, also serving as the Reviews Editor for a scholarly journal with the American Sociological Association.

Most recently, she has released a forthcoming textbook entitled "Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology," which was co-authored with Dr. Kenneth Gould. Dr. Lewis wrote three lessons with Dr. Gould prior to this publication, and this most recent collaboration has led to an innovative text made up of twenty lessons that have been classroom tested and recommended by renowned professors in the department of environmental science.

According to Dr. Lewis, the idea for this text originated from a discussion among environmental sociology professors and their dissatisfaction with introductory-level readers, (edited books presented with chapters from numerous authors,) and their complicated ways of presenting information to undergraduate students.

"We decided that it would be much more useful to have an undergraduate reader that was based on our most successful professor-to-student communications (our classes), rather than our most impressive professor-to-professor communications (our published professional journal articles)," state Lewis and Gould in the introduction to their text.

With this goal, Drs.. Lewis and Gould launched a project that led to their final publication. They began with a list of important undergraduate topics and then approached numerous successful colleagues, asking them to choose from the list and provide their most well received class lectures and lessons on any of the subjects.

This innovative approach to creating a reader has granted the resulting text praise even prior to its publication. Oxford University Press called it "the most student-oriented book available for environmental sociology courses," and continued to praise its fresh take on the creation of an undergraduate environmental science text.

Dr. Lewis' experience and extensive knowledge in the field have not gone unnoticed in the college community. While she will be returning to campus after the spring semester of 2010, Dr. Lewis is currently on leave in order to serve as a Visiting Professor of Sociology at CUNY/Brooklyn College's Honors Academy.

She has been hired as the Carol L. Zicklin Chair and is working to "develop interdisciplinary linkages among faculty working on issues of sustainability" in addition to teaching courses on sustainability.

"It's an exciting time to be doing this work because New York City has an ambition sustainability plan that is it trying to implement," Dr. Lewis noted in regards to her time at CUNY/Brooklyn. "When I return to Muhlenberg College, I will have a lot of practical information to share."

The College looks forward to Dr. Lewis' return, and extends its congratulations regarding the success of "Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology.