People

Hamil Pearsall

Assistant Professor

Hamil Pearsall

Areas of Expertise:

urban sustainability; environmental justice and health; GIS; human dimensions of global environmental change; risk, hazards and vulnerability; brownfield redevelopment; urban greening

Education:

2009 Ph.D., Clark University, Geography 2008
M.A., Clark University, Geography 2003
B.A., Middlebury College, International Studies

Research:

Hamil Pearsall is a human-environment geographer specializing in GIS applications for urban sustainability and environmental justice. Her research employs GIS, spatial statistics, and qualitative approaches. Pearsall’s dissertation research examined the socio-spatial impacts of brownfield redevelopment through the lens of vulnerability to consider how communities and individuals are affected by the social and environmental changes associated with the repurposing of urban land. Pearsall is extending her dissertation research to better understand responses to social and environmental stressors and how public policy monitors and evaluates the social justice implications of sustainability initiatives. Pearsall is also currently investigating the social and environmental impacts of urban greening programs.

Selected Publications:

Hamil Pearsall. [forthcoming]. Superfund Me: A study of resistance to gentrification in New York City. Urban Studies

Ogneva-Himmelberger, Yelena, Rahul Rakshit, and Hamil Pearsall. [forthcoming]. Impact of environmental factors on quality of life in Massachusetts. Professional Geographer

Pearsall, Hamil. 2010. From brown to green? Assessing social vulnerability to environmental gentrification in New York City. Environment and Planning C 28: 872-886.

Pearsall, Hamil and Joseph Pierce. 2010. Urban sustainability and environmental justice: Evaluating the linkages in public policy. Local Environment 15 (6):569-580.

Pearsall, Hamil. 2009. Linking the stressors and stressing the linkages: Analyzing human-environment vulnerability to multiple hazards in New York City. Environmental Hazards 8: 117-132.

Ogneva-Himmelberger, Yelena, Hamil Pearsall, and Rahul Rakshit. 2009. Concrete evidence & geographically weighted regression: A regional analysis of wealth and the land cover in Massachusetts. Applied Geography 24 (4): 478-487.