Melissa Checker

Dr. Melissa Checker (PhD NYU, 2002) serves on the faculties of the PhD Program in Anthropology and Environmental Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also the Hagedorn Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College. Her research focuses on the politics of urban sustainability, environmental racism, grassroots activism, and managed retreat. Her book, The Sustainability Myth: Environmental Gentrification and the Politics of Justice was published in 2020 (NYU Press).

She is also the author of Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town (NYU Press, 2005) and co-editor of Sustainability in the Global City: Myth and Practice (with Cynthia Isenhour and Gary McDonogh, Cambridge 2015) and Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power and Public Life (with Maggie Fishman, Columbia U Press, 2004), In addition, she has authored a number of academic articles and book chapters, as well as articles for popular magazines and newspapers.