Master of Sustainability Faculty and Staff

Michael H. Finewood Ph.D.

mfinewood@chatham.edu
Assistant Professor of Sustainability, School of Sustainability and the Environment

Hometown : Charlotte, NC
Joined Chatham : 2011

Academic Areas of Interest

Political ecology, economic geography, critical theory, sustainability, energy, environmental governance, and spatial analysis.

Biography

Michael Finewood is a human geographer and political ecologist with research and teaching interests in environmental governance, development, energy production, and sustainability in the Global North, with an explicit focus on critical geographies and justice. As a social scientist who focuses on human/environment issues, Dr. Finewood uses qualitative methods to research environmental perception and decision-making. He has conducted research on the social and ecological impacts of coastal development in South Carolina, and sea level rise in Virginia. His current work centers on stormwater governance in Pittsburgh and the water/energy nexus related to natural gas production and consumption in Pennsylvania.

Education

• Ph.D., Geography, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC), 2010
• M.A., Anthropology, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC), 2005
• B.A., Anthropology, North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC), 2003

Publications

• Finewood, Michael H. (Accepted 2012). Feeling the Squeeze: a political ecology of race and amenity-based development in coastal Bluffton, South Carolina. Local Environment.
• Stroup, Laura J. and Michael H. Finewood. 2011. The Hybrid AMPE Approach: Towards more effective environmental management. Society and Natural Resources 24(1): 85-94.
• Carr, Edward R. and Michael H. Finewood. (Expected). Sustainable Development. In Handbook of Global Environmental Issues. Wil Burns and Joel Heinen, eds. Mountain View, CA: World Scientific.
• Finewood, Michael H. and Dwayne E. Porter. 2010. Theorizing an alternative understanding of ‘disconnects’ between science and management. Southeastern Geographer 50(1): 130–146.

Organizations

• The Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers
• The Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences
• The Association of American Geographers

Presentations

• Finewood, Michael H. 2012. “Remembering BASF: Memory, race, and the environment along the South Carolina Coast.” Part of the organized session, “Land Use Conflicts” at the AAG Annual Meeting. New York, NY.
• Laura Stroup and Michael H. Finewood. 2011. “The political ecology of hydraulic fracking in Northeastern Pennsylvania.” Part of the organized session, “The Water-Energy Nexus” at the AAG Annual Meeting. Seattle, Washington.
• Finewood, Michael H. 2010. “Redeveloping development: Considerations of justice in discourses of sustainable development, planning, and environmental health science.” Part of the organized session "On Demanding a Politics and Practice of Socially Just Sustainability” at the AAG Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C.
• Finewood, Michael H. 2010. The political ecology of promulgation: Spectre v. DHEC and the neoliberalization of SC land use. The 17th Annual Critical Conference. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Finewood, Michael H. 2009. “‘Feeling the Squeeze’: Normalizing Inequalities on the South Carolina Coastal Landscape.” Part of the organized session, “Emerging Political Ecologies” at The 16th Annual Critical Geography Mini-Conference. Athens, Georgia.
• Finewood, Michael H. 2008. “‘Getting a handle on development’: Progress and modernity in Bluffton, South Carolina.” Part of the organized session, “Subdividing nature: The political ecology of governing rural land-use change in the U.S.” at the AAG Annual Meeting. Boston, Massachusetts.