Place Studies Initiative

because people and places matter.

The Place Studies Initiative is an outgrowth of the Nature and Human Communities Initiative within the Bucknell Environmental Center. We undertake and support research within the social sciences and environmental humanities that examines the nature and role of place in human experience. The purpose of the Place Studies Initiative is to facilitate and encourage research on the human dimensions of environmental issues. We do so through an array of projects we locate within three focus areas.

Environmental Justice and Public Health

Working to address inequalities in exposure and health assets

By collaborating with local hospitals and health clinics, we provide research internships for students interested in community public health. In addition students and faculty are actively engaged in chronicling the health impacts of natural resource extraction legacies in the region.

Learn more about Environmental Justice and Public Health projects and opportunities.

Environmental Humanities

Connecting people and places through innovations in humanities research and outreach

At the leading edge of the digital humanities initiatives of the Bucknell University, faculty and students working on the environmental humanities view place as a central category in poetry, oral history, creative non-fiction, theater, music and archival scholarship. Our marquee projects are the Stories of the Susquehanna book series and the Summer Writer’s Institute supported by funding from the John Ben Snow Foundation.

Learn more about Environmental Humanities projects and opportunities.

Sustainable Communities

Helping to identify strengths in our communities to facilitate an inheritable future

How do we build sustainable towns? This is the question which drives our research and outreach in a focus area which incorporates an eclectic group of scholars and community members. Our current projects include developing a Blighted Housing Survey, Asset-based community development in Sunbury and the creation of a Field Studies Lab at Bucknell that supports place-based research across the social sciences and humanities.

Learn more about Sustainable Communities projects and opportunities.