Department of Sociology

Program and Presentations

8:30 Light breakfast reception

9:00 Welcome address

• Norah MacKendrick (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University)

9:15 Keynote address

• Linda Birnbaum (Director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program): "Our Environment, Our Health: Engaging Researchers and Empowering CommunitiesOur Environment, Our Health: Engaging Researchers and Empowering Communities." For a video of Dr. Birnbaum’s presentation, click here.

10.30 Coffee break

11.00 Session I: Food and Environment

• Dorceta E. Taylor (Professor and James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Chair, University of Michigan): "Food Access, Health, and Urban Sustainability"

12:00 Lunch break

1:00 Session II: Current Crises

• Phil Brown (University Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Health Sciences, and Director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, Northeastern University): " Strategic Science Production: Sixty Years of Research and (In)Action on Fluorinated Compounds"
• Clifford P. Weisel (Professor of Exposure Science, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University) and Judith Graber (Assistant Research Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers University): " Studying PFC Exposures in Community: An On-going Case Study in Southern, NJ"

2:45 Light refreshments break

3:00 Session III: Consumers

• Ami Zota (Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University): " Examining the Interplay Between Consumer Product Chemicals and Social Inequality Through an Environmental Justice Lens"

3:45 Session IV: Community-Academic Collaborations: Challenges, Opportunities and Insights

• Ana Baptista (Assistant Professor in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program, The New School; Member of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance)
• Avery Grant, P.E., Executive Director of The Concerned Citizen Coalition of Long Branch and Member of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
• Molly Greenberg, MSW (Environmental Justice Policy Manager; Ironbound Community Corporation, Newark)
• Robert Laumbach, M.D., M.P.H., C.I.H. (Associate Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers School of Public Health)
• Nicky Sheats (Director, Center for the Urban Environment, John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy of Thomas Edison Sate College, Trenton, NJ)

5:00 Closing Remarks

• Norah MacKendrick

On Friday, April 28, 2017 public health scholars, community groups, and social scientists gathered at Rutgers University to discuss the many issues facing rural, urban, and racial and ethnic communities facing environmental health risks. This symposium featured a keynote address from Dr. Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. 

The event was organized by was organized by Norah MacKendrick of the department of sociology at Rutgers University, recipient of a Junior Faculty Workshop Award from the Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Arts and Sciences. 

The Issue

From detection of lead leaching into the public water supply in Flint, Michigan, the discovery of perfluorinated compounds in community wells and drinking water supplies across the country, to everyday concerns about chronic exposure to compounds in food and consumer products – environmental contaminants and their effects on health are fast becoming a pressing concern among residents and communities.

As individuals learn more about the contaminants in their air, water, soil, food and consumer products, they raise important questions: 

• What contaminants are we putting into our environment, food and consumer products, and how do we assess their safety?
• How do we enforce our right to know what chemicals go into our bodies?
• How do we protect ourselves from chemicals, particularly in communities already suffering from multiple social, economic and political inequalities?
• Most importantly—and the subject of this symposium—how can social and health scientists collaborate to move the field of environmental health research forward to support environmental justice?

Sponsorship

The following Rutgers sponsors made this symposium possible:

• Dean of the Social and Behavior Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences (Junior Faculty Workshop Award)
• Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease (CEED) (Grant: NIH-NIEHS P30 ES005022)
• Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI)
• Department of Human Ecology (School of Environmental and Biological Sciences)
• Department of Sociology (School of Arts and Sciences)
• Office of Chancellor, Rutgers University - Newark