Alexander Rezk
Office Location: 236A South Stevens Hall & Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center Rm 208, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469
Advisor: Dr. Cynthia Isenhour
Biographical Statement:
I am a second-year PhD Student in the Anthropology & Environmental Policy program at the University of Maine. An environmental social scientist, I am trained both as an anthropologist and sociologist. I have previously obtained a Master’s Degree in International Development and Social Change at Clark University, where I focused on the implications of climate change and its related consequences on sustainable global development, and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Worcester State University with a focus on Environmental Sociology. Originally hailing from New York City, I have resided in New England for the past five years.
Research Area:
My research area is focused upon the human dimensions of climate change as they pertain to disaster and risk management as an issue of environmental justice. Specifically, I am interested in how local, regional, and federal bodies quantify, plan for, and cope with loss and damage sustained by coastal hazards linked to climate impacts. My past research examined how Hurricane Sandy was parsed by local government as a climate-related issue, and how the official disaster response and subsequent policy initiatives either reflected or denied an ongoing commitment by regional leadership to tackle coastal resilience head on. For my dissertation, I will be expanding the purview of this analysis, linking sites of recent coastal disaster impact in a geographically diversified attempt to unpack how neoliberal modalities of resilience-building affect future preparedness toward chronic disaster exposure.
