Research

Assistant Professor of Teaching John-Michael Davis co-authored a book with Dr. Yaakov Garb titled, "Polluted Politics: The Development of an Israeli-Palestinian E-waste Economy." The book was published by Cambridge University Press.

This book is about the politically charged afterlife of Israeli electronics that arrive in rural Palestinian villages. Like e-waste hubs throughout the global South, the West Line villages emerged as Palestine’s central e-waste hub where rudimentary recycling methods have transformed a once pristine countryside into one of the most polluted regions throughout Israel and Palestine – with local tensions between livelihoods and environmental carnage reaching a breaking point. Based on nearly a decade of community-based action research, Polluted Politics describes how the geo-political realities of the occupation facilitated its emergence and persistence coupled with the trials and tribulations in community-driven efforts to establish a sustainable and equitable cross-border e-waste industry. Through a learning-by-doing approach, we elicit the toxic political relations between Israel and Palestine and within the Palestinian Authority that obstruct sustainable e-waste management policies, while surfacing the processes and possibilities to reform informal e-waste economies in other settings.

DIGS Assistant Professor Tsitsi Masvawure co-edits new book, "The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Global Health," with Clark professor Ellen Foley. Masvawure and Foley were featured in the 10/14/24 episode of the "Challenge. Change" podcast, "Taking the Temperature of Global Health."

Assistant Teaching Professor Caitlin Ferrarini's article, "First-generation students bring a curious and open mindset to online community-based global learning during the COVID-19 pandemic," is featured in the latest issue of Diversity Abroad's quarterly publication, The Global Impact Exchange. This article is based Professor Ferrarini's findings from her recently published dissertation, and she also linked the SWEET Center's asset-mapping exercise as a practical resource related to her findings.

Seth Tuler, associate professor in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies in The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, has been appointed by President Biden to serve as a member of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.  

The board is an independent federal agency that performs technical and scientific peer reviews of nuclear waste management and disposal activities in the United States. It also issues reports and recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and Congress regarding the U.S. Department of Energy’s activities concerning high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

Stephen McCauley has been named to the Green Worcester Advisory Committee. This committee is a citizen advisory board that supports information exchange between the City and the Worcester community on topics of sustainability and resilience. The committee works with the city's Department of Sustainability and Resilience (DSR) to ensure progress toward the Green Worcester Plan, and to represent the community's interests around initiatives related to environmental justice, energy transition, lakes and ponds, zero waste and other topics related to sustainability and resilience.

9/11/2024

William San Martín has received a 4-year NSF grant for the project Accelerating Coordination across Research and Policy Networks to Halve Nitrogen Waste (iN-Net) ($1.49 million, Award 2412593). The project works with international scientific networks and policymakers in South Asia, Africa, Latin America, the US, and Europe, as well as with intergovernmental organizations, including the United Nations Environment Program - Nitrogen Working Group, a forum of 80+ government representatives created in 2019 to explore the challenges of governing nitrogen pollution and developing new national and international policy instruments.