CV PDF 2022
EDUCATION
Northeastern University
Ph.D., Sociology, 2018
Dissertation Title: Unseen Science: The Social Re-Discovery of Per- and Polyfluorinated Compounds
Washington State University
M.A., Sociology, 2008. Thesis: Patterns of Hazardous Waste in the United States: Analyzing Rural Environmental Justice with Spatial Data
Connecticut College
B.A., Sociology, with Distinction, 2005
Certificate in Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto Mississauga. 2022 – present.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Department of History, Philosophy + Social Science, Rhode Island School of Design. Providence, RI. 2019 – 2022.
Research Fellow, Silent Spring Institute and Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute. Boston, MA. 2018 – 2019.
NONACADEMIC PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2009 – 2013. Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, Development Director. Oakland, CA.
PEER-REVIEW PUBLICATIONS
Book: In preparation. Toxic Discretion (Expected manuscript completion date August 2023).
Raoul S. Liévanos, Elisabeth Wilder, Lauren Richter, Jennifer Carrera, and Michael Mascarenhas. 2021. Challenging the White Spaces of Environmental Sociology. Environmental Sociology 7(2): 103-109.
Lauren Richter, Alissa Cordner, and Phil Brown. 2021. Producing Ignorance Through Regulatory Structure: The Case of Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). Sociological Perspectives 64(4). Published online 10/30/20.
Eric Nost, Sara Wylie, Chris Sellers, Becky Mansfield, Kelsey Breseman, Gretchen Gehrke, Lourdes Vera, Lauren Richter, and EDGI. 2020. Environmental Data for the Green New Deal. Science for the People (23) 2.
Alissa Cordner, Lauren Richter, and Phil Brown. 2019. Environmental Chemicals and Public Sociology: Engaged Scholarship on Highly Fluorinated Compounds. Environmental Sociology 5(4): 339-351.
Lauren Richter. 2019. Challenging Dominant Breast Cancer Research Agendas: Perspectives on the Outcomes of the Interagency Breast Cancer and Environment Research Coordinating Committee. Environmental Health 18(41).
Elicia Cousins, Lauren Richter, Alissa Cordner, Phil Brown, and Sokona Diallo. 2019. Risky Business? Manufacturer and Retailer Action to Remove Per- and Polyfluorinated Chemicals From Consumer Products. New Solutions 2(29): 242-265.
Alissa Cordner, Vanessa De La Rosa, Laurel Schaider, Ruthann Rudel, Lauren Richter, and Phil Brown. 2019. PFAS Drinking Water Guideline Levels: The Role of Scientific Uncertainty, Risk Assessment Decisions, and Social Factors. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 29:157-171. (Winner Best 2020 JESEE Article Award).
Lauren Richter, Alissa Cordner, and Phil Brown. 2018. Non-Stick Science: Sixty Years of Research and (In)Action on Fluorinated Compounds. Social Studies of Science 48(5): 691-714.
Lauren Richter. 2018. Constructing Insignificance? Applying Critical Race Theory to Institutional Failure in Environmental Justice Communities. Environmental Sociology 4(1): 107-121. (Winner 2018 Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences Best Student Article Award).
Leif Fredrickson, Chris Sellers, Lindsey Dillion, Jennifer Ohayon, Nick Shapiro, Marianne Sullivan, Stephen Bocking, Phil Brown, Vanessa De La Rosa, Jill Harrison, Sara Johns, Katherine Kulik, Rebecca Lave, Michelle Murphy, Liza Piper, Lauren Richter, and Sara Wylie. 2018. Paving the Way for Trump: Past Presidential Assaults on Environmental Protection. American Journal of Public Health 108(S2): S95-S103.
Cordner, Alissa, Lauren Richter, Phil Brown. 2016. Can Chemical-class Approaches Replace Chemical-by-Chemical Strategies? Lessons from Recent FDA Regulatory Action on Perfluorinated Compounds. Environmental Science & Technology 50(23): 12584-12591.
Rosa, Eugene A. and Lauren Richter. 2008. Durkheim on the Environment: Ex Libris or Ex Cathedra: Introduction to Inaugural Lecture to a Course in Social Science, by Emile Durkheim 1887-1888. Organization & Environment 21(2): 182-188.
Edited Journal Issue: Lauren Richter, Raoul S. Lievanos, Elisabeth Wilder, Jennifer Carrera, and Michael Mascarenhas, eds. 2021. “Race and Environment.” Special issue, Environmental Sociology 7(2).
Under Review:
Carol Kwiatkowski, Miriam Diamond, Simona Balan, Andrew Lindstrom, Zhanyun Wang, Lauren Richter, Seth Fernandez, Liz Harriman, and Tom Bruton. “Essential Uses: A New Approach to Managing Chemicals of Concern.” (revise and resubmit).
Lauren Richter. “Whiteness as Property, Corporate as White? Critical Race Theory and Environmental Sociology.” Book Chapter in The Racial Structure of Sociological Thought, edited by Jennifer Mueller and Victor Ray.
Jennie Ohayon, Alissa Cordner, Phil Brown, Andrea Amico, and Lauren Richter. Persistent Chemicals, Persistent Activism: How Scientific Opportunity Structures Shape Social Movement Organizing Around PFAS Contamination. (revise and resubmit).
Articles in Preparation:
Lauren Richter 