Angela Halfacre

Angela Halfacre

Professor Emeritus

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Professor Angela C. Halfacre teaches in the departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Political Science at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She also serves as the founding director of Furman’s David E. Shi Center for Sustainability established in 2008. Before returning to Furman, her alma mater, in 2008, she spent 10 years at the College of Charleston as a political science professor and director of the graduate program in Environmental Studies. She was selected as the College of Charleston's 2008 Distinguished Teacher-Scholar. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1997. At Furman, she teaches courses in environmental policy, conservation, sustainability science, and research methods. Halfacre also coordinates several curricular and co-curricular programs related to sustainability on campus and in the local community. Her research and publications exa mine public perceptions of sustainability issues, community governance, and environmental decision-making. She has published several peer-reviewed journal articles (including the 2011 SouthEastern Division of the Association of American Geographers' Best Paper), and has a University of South Carolina Press book titled A Delicate Balance: Constructing a Conservation Culture in the South Carolina Lowcountry (which examines environmental perceptions and associated social movements in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina). Halfacre co-coordinates Furman’s Sustainability Planning Councils and chaired The Duke Endowment Task Force on Community and Environmental Sustainability. Halfacre has served on several boards of local and national conservation and community organizations including nonprofit Greenville Forward, Coastal Conservation League, City of Greenville Green Ribbon Advisory Council, and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Steering Committee.

Honors

  • Southeastern Geographers Association. 2011. Best Paper Award
  • College of Charleston 2008 Recipient of the Faculty-wide Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award
  • "Implementing Green Building Technology: Utilizing a College of Charleston Historic Building as a Model for the Charleston Community" College of Charleston Schools of Social Science and Humanities and Science and Mathematics and Graduate Studies Nominee for the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) Service-Learning Award, 2003
  • The Charleston Post and Courier's 2003 Selection for "Twenty Women Under Forty: working toward brilliant futures, building exceptional lives"
  • Carolina Recycling Association (CRA) Nominee for CRA's Green Builder of the Year Award, 2003
  • County of Charleston Department of Solid Waste Nominee for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control's "The Melba McKenzie Community Recycling Award," 2002
  • "Implementing Green Building Technology: Utilizing a College of Charleston Historic Building as a Model for the Charleston Community" College of Charleston Nominee for the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE) Service-Learning Award, 2002
  • Teaching and Promoting Undergraduate Research Award, College of Charleston, 2002
  • Political Science Club Faculty of the Year, College of Charleston, Academic Year 1998-1999
  • Graduate Teaching Award, University of Florida, Academic Year 1996-1997
  • Furman University, Selected Campus Sustainability Leader, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2009
  • Climate Action Leader, Clean Air-Cool Planet, 2009.

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Florida
  • M.A., University of Florida
  • B.A., Furman University

Publications

  • "A Delicate Balance": Constructing a Conservation Culture in the South Carolina Lowcountry. University of South Carolina Press. July 2012 cloth. April 2013 ebook and paper
  • "Transformational Leadership at Furman University: Tradeoffs and Transitions" in Sustainability in Higher Education: Stories and Strategies for Transformation edited by Peggy Barlett and Geoffrey Chase. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013
  • "Gathering, Buying, and Growing Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia sericea): Urbanization and Social Networking in the Sweetgrass Basket-Making Industry of Lowcountry South Carolina" in African Ethnobotany in the Americas edited by Robert Voeks and John Rashford. New York: Springer, 2012 with Patrick Hurley, Brian Grabbatin, and Cari Goetcheus
  • "Social Networks, Livelihoods, and Negotiating Land Use Change: A Case of Basketmaking in Mount Pleasant, SC" GeoForum. 2011; with Brian Grabbatin and Patrick Hurley
  • "Shaping Sustainability at Furman and Middlebury: Emergent and Adaptive Curricular Models" In Taking it to the Next Level edited by Lucas Johnston. Routledge Press, 2012; with Jack Byrne, Michelle Horhota, Brannon Andersen, Katherine Kransteuber, Brittany DeKnight, Steve Trombulak, and Nan Jenks-Jay
  • "Engaging In-coming First-year Students Lessons Learned from a Sustainability Orientation Session." Sustainability: The Journal of Record. February 2011; with Michelle Horhota, Jeanine Stratton, and Jenni Asman
  • "Sewing environmental justice into African-American sweet grass basket-making in the South Carolina Low country." Southeastern Geographer. 2010; with P. Hurley and B. Grabbatin. [Won Award for Best Paper Published in 2011]
  • "Resistant place identities in rural Charleston County, South Carolina: Cultural, Environmental, and Racial Politics in the Sewee to Santee Area." Human Ecology Review. Summer 2009; with Cassandra Johnson and Patrick Hurley
  • "Dodging Alligators, Rattlesnakes, and Backyard Barbeques: A Political Ecology of Sweetgrass Basketmaking and Conservation in the South Carolina Lowcountry, USA " GeoJournal. Spring 2010; with Patrick T. Hurley
  • "Finding a 'disappearing' resource: Rural gentrification and the 'fringe ecologies' of sweetgrass basket-making in the SC Lowcountry. The Professional Geographer Fall 2008; with Patrick Hurley, Norm Levine, and Marianne Burke
  • "Practical seed source selection for restoration projects in an urban setting: tallgrass prairie, serpentine barrens, and coastal habitat examples." Urban Habitat. Summer 2008; with Danny Gustafson and Roger Anderson
  • "The Use of Focus Groups in Assessing Ethnic and Racial Concerns about Nuclear Waste Cleanup" in The Promise and the Peril of Public Participation. 2009. Frans H.J.M. Coenen, Ed. Springer Publications
  • ""'Growing' a Campus Native Species Garden: Sustaining Volunteer-Driven Sustainability" International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. April 2008; with Kristan McKinne
  • "As Green as We Think? The Case of the College of Charleston Green Building Initiative" International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. May 2006; with Katharine A. Owens
  • "Latino Migrant Farmworkers in Lowcountry South Carolina: a Demographic Profile and an Examination of Pesticide Risk Perception and Protection in Two Pilot Case Studies" Human Organization. Spring 2006; with Deborah McCarthy, Tracy Burkett, and Alicia Carvajal
  • "Barriers to Student Mobilization and Service at Institutions of Higher Education: A Greenbuilding Initiative Case Study on a Historic, Urban Campus in Charleston, South Carolina, USA" International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. January 2006; with Katherine S. Zimmerman
  • "Community Participation in Preservation of Lowcountry SC Sweetgrass(Muhlenbergia filipes) Basketry" Economic Botany, Summer 2004; with Zachary H. Hart and Marianne K. Burke
  • "The Green Building Project: Promoting Political Science Learning through a Collaborative Research Approach" PS: Political Science and Politics, April 2004; with Katharine A. Owens, Katherine S. Zimmerman, and Zachary H. Hart
  • "Local Autonomy and Environmental Justice: Implementing Distributional Equity Across National Scales" in Achieving Sustainable Development eds. Walter A. Rosenbaum and Hans Bressers, (Westport, CT: Praeger , 2003); with Frans H.J.M. Coenen
  • "A Restoration Plan for Sweetgrass in Coastal Prairie Habitat of South Carolina" Ecological Restoration, March, 2003; with Marianne Burke and Zachary Hart
  • "Environmental Decision-Making and Community Involvement: The Case of Sandy Island, South Carolina" The Southeastern Geographer, May, 2001; with Jeremy Browning and Brian Ballard
  • "Regulating Contested Local Hazards: Is Constructive Dialogue Possible Among Participants in Community Risk Management?" Policy Studies Journal, Volume 28, No. 3, Fall 2000; with Albert R. Matheny and Walter A. Rosenbaum. [Entire Issue Received 2000-2001 Don Hadwiger Award for Best Symposium Published in Volume 28.]
  • "De verdeling van milieueffecten en milieurisico's over de Nederlandse bevolking als beleidsprobleem" (Environmental Injustice in the Netherlands). Beleidswetenschap (Policy Science). Volume 4, December 2000; with F.H.J.M. Coenen
  • "The Grassroots at Risk: Local Perceptions and Environmental Injustice" in Locality and Identity: Environmental Issues in Law and Society, eds. Jane Holder and Donald McGillivray (Dartmouth/Aldershot, 1999); with Albert R. Matheny
  • "Political Issues and Political Choice: Belief Systems, Generations, and the Potential for Realignment in American Politics" in After the Boom: The Politics of Generation X, eds. Stephen C. Craig and Stephen Earl Bennett (Boulder, Co: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997); with Stephen C. Craig
  • "Identifying behavioral barriers to campus sustainability: A multi-method approach" International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 2014 (volume 15, issue 4); with Michelle Horhota, Jeanine Stratton, and Jenni Asman.

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