Year: 2025

by Phil Brown, Michael Edelstein, and Steve Kroll-Smith [See the PDF with images] We mourn and celebrate our friend and colleague Kai Erikson, a legendary scholar who helped us see the relationships between environmental sociology and the sociology of disaster, who died November 10, 2025 in Hamden, Connecticut at the age of 94. The William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and American Studies, Emeritus at Yale University, Kai traversed a long career of creative, brilliant, sensitive scholarship that read like extended essays in a literary magazine.   Kai began his academic career at the University of Pittsburg. He was a tenured professor at Emory University when he accepted a position at Yale where he spent 45 years. Importantly, he had a joint appointment in Sociology and the American Studies Program. He edited the Yale Review for 11 years working with such luminaries as James Merrill, Joyce Carol Oates, R.W.B. Lewis, and Adrienne …

The Fall 2025 issue of the Environmental Sociology Section Newsletter is now available for download in PDF format. In this issue: A message from the Section Chair Josh Sbicca on the threats, challenges and opportunities for environmental sociologists; many important recent book and article publications and accomplishments; and calls for abstracts from npj Climate Action as well as Environmental Sociology Section Award Calls.

Dear Envirosoc Community Members, We sadly note the passing of Craig R. Humphrey, professor, sailor, and family man, who died peacefully at home July 31 with his wife by his side.  He was 82 and had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Craig, the son of Ruth (Reed) and Roger Humphrey, grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, graduated from Bowling Green State University and received his Masters and Doctorate degrees in sociology from Brown University.  He taught sociology courses about urban growth, world population and environmental sociology at the College of William and Mary and Penn State University and spent several semesters as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  Craig authored numerous books and papers, most notably Environment, Energy and Society, published in 1982.  Continually active in professional associations, Craig chaired the Environmental Sociology Section of the American …