Dr. Patricia Widener

Patricia Widener, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters

Sociology

Boca Raton Campus | DW 408

Curriculum Vitae

Research:听 Climate and environment; political economy of petroleum and the environment; social movements and transnational activism; and marine sociology
Teaching:听 Environmental sociology; global environmental perspectives; poverty & society; social movements; sociology of climate & disaster; tourism & society

Background

Patricia Widener is a professor of sociology and the author of two books:听 Toxic & Intoxicating Oil: Discovery, Resistance, and Justice in Aotearoa New Zealand 听(2021) and听 Oil Injustice: Resisting and Conceding a Pipeline in Ecuador 听(2011). She conducts allied ethnographic research and studies how communities and climate and environmental groups mobilize in response to oil proposals, tourism, and disasters. She examines community and oil industry conflicts through the perspectives of climate, marine, and environmental justice, political economy, social movements, extractive tourism, and visual sociology. Currently, she is analyzing data collected during dozens of protests and rallies in Southeast Florida both for and against national policies and rhetoric. She is also beginning a new project on marine justice, marine sociology, and the unique experiences of coastal and island communities.

Professor Widener teaches courses on social movements, environmental sociology, tourism, poverty, and climate and disaster.

Monographs

Widener, P. 2021.听 Toxic and Intoxicating Oil: Discovery, Resistance, and Justice in Aotearoa New Zealand. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Widener, P. 2011.听 Oil Injustice: Resisting and Conceding a Pipeline in Ecuador. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Selected Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Widener, P. 2024. 鈥淐onceptualizing the City through Photovoice.鈥� 听Teaching and Learning Anthropology 听7(1): 178-184.

Mullen, Casey and P. Widener. 2022. 鈥淒issonance between Framing and Acting for Climate Justice.鈥�听 Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. 27(5): 586-604.

Widener, P. 2022. 鈥淓nergy & Export Transitions: From Oil Exports to Renewable Energy Goals in Aotearoa New Zealand.鈥� Pp 91-104 in听 Public Responses to Fossil Fuel Export: Exporting Energy and Emissions in a Time of Transition, edited by Hilary Boudet and Shawn Olson Hazboun. Elsevier.

Widener, P. 2020. 鈥淭he Visual Opportunity Spaces of Oil: In Promotion, Protest, and Warning.鈥�听 Visual Studies.

Widener, P. 2018. 鈥淣ational Discovery and Citizen Experts in Aotearoa New Zealand: Local and Global Narratives of Hydraulic Fracturing.鈥�听 Extractive Industries & Society 听5(4): 515-523.

Widener, P. 2018. 鈥淐oastal People Dispute Offshore Oil Exploration: Toward a Study of Embedded Seascapes, Submersible Knowledge, Sacrifice, and Marine Justice.鈥�听 Environmental Sociology 听4(4): 405-418.

Widener, P. and Carmen Rowe. 2018. 鈥淐limate Discourse: Eluding Literacy, Justice and Inclusion, By Evading Causation, Privilege and Diversity.鈥�听 Environmental Sociology 听4(1): 162-174.

Widener, P. 2018. 鈥淐itizens in Resistance to Oil Development and Acid Fracking in the Sunshine State.鈥� Pp. 224-247 in听 Fractured Communities: Risk, Impacts, and Protest against Hydraulic Fracking in US Shale Regions, edited by Anthony Ladd. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Karides, Marina and P. Widener. 2018. 鈥淩ace, Class, Privilege and Bias in South Florida Food Movement.鈥� Pp. 191-203 in听 Food & Poverty: Food Insecurity and Food Sovereignty among America鈥檚 Poor, edited by Leslie Hossfeld, E. Brooke Kelly, and Julia Waity. Nashville TN: Vanderbilt University Press.

Widener, P. 2016. 鈥淓-Fears, E-Risks and Citizen-Intelligence: The Impacts of Surveillance on Resistance and Research.鈥�听 Surveillance & Society 听14(2): 277-285.

Widener, P., Carmen Rowe, Ana Marie Estrada, Marcella Ahumada, Martha Eichloff and Jacquelyn Anderson. 2016. 鈥淐limate Action and Literacy through Creativity and Conversations.鈥� Pp. 125-138 in听 Systemic Crises of Global Climate Change: Intersections of Race, Class and Gender, edited by Phoebe Godfrey and Denise Torres. NY: Routledge.

Widener, P. and Marina Karides. 2014. 鈥淔ood System Literacy: Empowering Citizens and Consumers beyond Farm-to-Fork Pathways.鈥�听 Food, Culture & Society 听17(4): 665-687.

Widener, P. 2013. 鈥淎 Protracted Age of Oil: Pipelines, Refineries and Quiet Conflict.鈥�听 Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability 听18(7): 834-851.

Widener, P. 2009. 鈥淥il Tourism: Disasters and Destinations in Ecuador and the Philippines.鈥�听 Sociological Inquiry 听79(3): 266-288.

Widener, P. 2009. 鈥淕lobal Links and Environmental Flows: Oil Disputes in Ecuador.鈥�听 Global Environmental Politics 听9(1): 31-57.

Widener, P. 2007. 鈥淏enefits and Burdens of Transnational Campaigns: A Comparison of Four Oil Struggles in Ecuador.鈥�听 Mobilization: An International Quarterly 听12(1): 21-36.

Widener, P. and Valerie Gunter. 2007. 鈥淥il Spill Recovery in the Media: Missing an Alaska Native Perspective.鈥�听 Society and Natural Resources 听20(9): 767-783.

Widener, P. 2007. 鈥淥il Conflict in Ecuador: A Photographic Essay.鈥�听 Organization & Environment 听20(1): 84-105.

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

The College of Arts & Letters offers degree programs and certificates in the performing arts, fine arts, languages and social sciences.