Carolyn Finney

Assistant Professor
Ph.D.  Geography    Clark University, 2006
B.A.   Fairhaven Concentration    Western Washington University

128C Giannini Hall
Berkeley, California 94720
cfinney@berkeley.edu
office: 510-643-6342   lab: 510-643-6342   fax:  510-666-3031

     Recent publications     

My focus as a geographer is to explore how issues of difference impact participation in decision-making processes designed to address environmental issues. I first conducted research in Nepal, speaking with women about their experiences collecting fuel wood, fodder, and water, and the challenges of balancing traditional gender roles with immediate economic needs. Their stories revealed the significance of identity, representation, and struggle in shaping strategies for negotiating their daily lives. Since returning to the United States, I have explored how these same issues influence African Americans’ participation in environmental debate and decision-making. What happens when the environmental debate presumes to encompass most perspectives, expectations, and needs? The aim of my work is to develop greater cultural competency within environmental organizations and institutions, challenge media outlets on the (mis- or non-)) representation of “different” folks, and increase awareness of how privilege shapes who gets to speak to environmental issues and determine policy and action.

All of my work grows out of a commitment to question conventional wisdom and reconsider long-held assumptions regarding the production, representation, and dissemination of knowledge about people, places, and ideas. We must revisit and revise the way we do things – the frameworks we use, the value we attach to particular kinds of knowledge, the forms of expression that have currency in decision-making arenas – in order to invite creativity and maximize the possibility for positive change.

I am currently working on my first book, which explores the relation of African Americans to the environment and to the environmental movement. In particular, I explore the role of memory and identity in influencing African American environmental participation, and the general disconnect between African American environmental professionals and their white counterparts regarding the perception of exclusion and racism within an environmental context.

With artist and educator Kaylynn Twotrees, I am constructing a framework to bring into the climate-change conversation those people whose voices have so far been unheard. Who is shaping this conversation, and how is it being packaged and disseminated? Who gets to participate, who is experiencing the impact of climate changes through loss, and who is engaging with the changes through information? For those individuals and groups who wish to communicate their experience of a changing planet, we will provide a structure for framing their issues, expressing their ideas, and proposing solutions, as well as leveraging that dialogue into full participation in the climate-change debate.

The Center for Whole Communities, Vermont – I participate as a faculty member in developing curriculum and facilitating workshops with environmental professionals designed to focus on race, land, and privilege.

Second Century National Park Commission – I serve on a board-appointed committee of academics, politicians, and private sector individuals that addresses the educational role of the National Parks in the 21st century.

Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) – I serve as a member of a board-appointed committee on the Public Understanding of Science and Technology (COPUST).

Finney, C. 2006. Claiming Our Own: African Americans, Memory, and Environment. Environment and Planning A (under review).

Finney, C. 2003. Can’t See the Black Folks for the Trees: Feminist Theory in Black and White. In Voices for a New Century. Eds. C. Faulkner and S. Weir. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.