Hamil Pearsall
Visiting Assistant Professor
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Areas of Expertise:
Urban sustainability, global environmental change, environmental justice and health, brownfield development, community resilience
Education:
PhD, Clark University, Geography, 2009
B.A. in International Studies (minor in Environmental Studies), Middlebury College, 2003
Research:
Dr. Pearsall’s research focuses on social justice and equity within the context of sustainability. In particular, she has studied urban brownfields through the lens of vulnerability, considering how communities adapt to, and potentially benefit from, the social and environmental changes associated with reusing urban land. She examines unintended consequences of brownfield redevelopment, for example, the geographic displacement or financial burdens it may create for residents. Her research in four neighborhoods of New York City revealed that brownfield redevelopment prompted increases in the cost of living, reducing the adaptive capacities of vulnerable populations.
Prior Employment:
Instructor, Environment Studies in the Various Disciplines, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2009.
Instructor, Environmental Justice, Hunter College, 2008.
Publication:
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
Selected Conference Presentations:
“Exploring Community Resilience to Environmental Gentrification through a Case Study of Brownfield Redevelopment in New York City,” presented at annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 2009.
“Sustainability, Vulnerability and the Socio-Spatial Impacts of Brownfield Redevelopment,” presented at annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 2008.
“Risk Perception and Brownfields Redevelopment: Exploring Community Perceptions of Contaminated Propertiesz,” presented at annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 2007.