Dr. David Casagrande
research
STEPS Building, Room 436
Lehigh University
1 West Packer Ave.
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Tel: (610) 758-2672
I combine anthropology with professional experience as a policy analyst to find solutions to environmental problems. This includes researching the role of culture in managing cognitive dissonance and how this affects human behavior. I also study how information is distributed in human systems and how this affects our ability to adapt and change. I've developed many interdisciplinary research projects with colleagues from the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and public policy. My academic appointment at Lehigh is split between the university's Environmental Studies Program and Department of Sociology & Anthropology. I am a research faculty member of Lehigh's Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience.
Current research projects
- Climate Adaptation and Resilience
- Managed retreat in response to climate change
- Sustainability Impact Assessment
- Information Ecology
- Ethnoecology
Past research projects
- Flood recovery and mitigation
- Community Resilience in the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Impacts of non-conventional shale gas extraction on quality of life in Pennsylvania
- People, landscapes, and water policy in the arid American Southwest
- Social and psychological effects of ecosystem restoration
- Tzeltal Maya Medicinal Plants
- Environmental perceptions and cultural change among Marshallese in America
- Green-rumped parrotlet (Forpus passerinus) ecology & conservation
How my research is funded
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Current Positions
Professor of Anthropology, Lehigh University
Dept of Sociology/Anthropology
Teaching Faculty, Environmental Studies
Research Faculty, Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
Faculty Affiliate: Cognitive Science and Latin American/Latino Studies
Lehigh University Representative to the United Nations
Degrees
Ph.D., University of Georgia, Ecological Anthropology
Master of Forest Science, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
B.S., Geography, Southern Connecticut State University
Languages
ENGLISH - primary, SPANISH - secondary, TZELTAL (Maya) - intermediate, GERMAN - ich bin ein beginner
"An open mind requires an open heart."