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Culture, Community & Place Research


People in Shinjuku crosswalk


Culture, Community, and Place scholarship is concerned with understanding our place in the world and thinking critically about inequality and power along lines of class, gender, race, and ethnicity. Intersections of racial, gender-, sexual-, and class-based identities shape perceptions of places and human experiences. Research by faculty and students in ESS investigates how societies evolve within cultural landscapes, how individuals construct identities in relation to their communities, and how places shape the everyday experiences of people and how placemaking occurs. We use community-based approaches to address place-based issues and examine ways of life, local knowledge, and cultural differences to understand the needs and values of diverse groups. ESS faculty and students explore the interconnections between people and place through a range of research themes, including landscape, mobility, food access, social justice, identity, ethnicity, and representation. By engaging with diverse communities and employing interdisciplinary approaches, we develop insights that inform policy-making, promote social justice, and enhance our understanding of the connections between people and place.


Culture, Community & Place Faculty

Adrienne Cachelin

Adrienne Cachelin

Associate Professor, SPARC Environmental Lab Director

Environmental Justice, Food Justice, Belonging, Critical Participatory Action Research, Eco-Justice Pedagogy

adrienne.cachelin@health.utah.edu

Jessica DiCarlo

Jessica DiCarlo

Assistant Professor 

Development, Political Ecology, Cultural Anthropology, Critical Geopolitics, Energy Transition, Infrastructure, Tibet & the Himalaya, Southeast Asia, China

jessica.dicarlo@utah.edu

Matt Fry

Matt Fry

Associate Professor of Geography

Political Ecology, Energy and Environmental Governance, Urban Policies, Environmental Justice, Cultural Geography, Latin America 

m.fry@ess.utah.edu

Andrew Linke

Andrew M. Linke

Associate Professor

Political Geography, Political Violence, Kenya, Spatial Statistics, GIS, Climate Change, and Conflict

andrew.linke@ess.utah.edu

Rich Medina

Richard Medina

Associate Professor
Director, HATER Lab

GIS, Spatial analysis, Geography of Terrorism and Insurgent Activity, Complex Systems in Social and Geographic Spaces

richard.medina@ess.utah.edu

Kathleen Nicoll

Kathleen Nicoll

Professor

Geomorphology, Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, Geoarchaeology, Arid Lands, Petroleum Geology

kathleen.nicoll@ess.utah.edu

Last Updated: 8/29/24