ABOUT ME
I’m a fifth year Ph.D. Candidate in the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, with graduate certificates in Science & Technology Studies, Science, Technology & Public Policy, and graduate teaching.
My research is interdisciplinary and community-based, sitting at the intersection of:
environmental justice
political ecology
critical geography, and
science and technology studies.
Specifically, I’m interested in the politics of expertise, knowledge production, trust, and risk as they relate to environmental governance and decision-making. My dissertation research seeks to understand the disconnects between U.S. air pollution regulation and monitoring and the lived experiences of air pollution in environmental justice communities. I also explore themes related to abolition ecologies, surveillance and technology, and labor studies.
I have significant teaching experience, spanning instruction in political ecology, interdisciplinary environmental studies and public policy at the graduate level and environmental studies, sociology, and political science at the undergraduate level.
Education
University of Michigan
Ph.D. Environmental Justice - exp. 2025
M.S. Environmental Justice
Grad.Cert. Science & Technology Policy
Grad.Cert. Graduate Teaching
carthage college
B.A. Environmental Policy & Political Science
Contact
Email: embermcc (at) umich (dot) edu
Recent News
September 2024 - Publication Alert! Our new article, “From Coercive to Carceral Conservation: Reframing Conservation through Abolition Ecologies” was published open-access in Antipode.
April 2024 - Research Assistant Ricardo España Jr. won an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program “Blue Ribbon Award” for his research work in our group during his winter 2024 UROP research assistantship.
March 2024 - Ember was awarded the Rackham Graduate School’s Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor award after securing a nomination from the School for Environment & Sustainability.