Bryce Beal DuBois, Ph.D.
1 College Street
Worcester, MA 01610
bdubois@holycross.edu
BACKGROUND
Languages: English (fluent), Spanish (limited working proficiency)
Research Interests: social sustainability, sense of place and environmental change, public space, social-ecological systems, environmental education, beach and coastal studies, watershed governance, qualitative research, ethnography.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2019 – Present Visiting Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Program, The College of the Holy Cross
2019 – 2022 Assistant Professor in Residence, History, Philosophy and Social Sciences Concentration, Rhode Island School of Design
2017 – 2019 Lecturer, History, Philosophy and Social Sciences Concentration, Rhode Island School of Design
2017 Visiting Assistant Professor, Psychology Department. Providence College.
2016 – 2017 Post-Doctoral Associate, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University.
2013 – 2016 Extension Research Associate, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University.
2013 Adjunct Faculty, Children and Youth Studies Program, Department of Sociology, Brooklyn College,
2012 Adjunct Faculty, Department of Psychology, John Jay College.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project of Southeastern New England. Funded through EPA’s Southeast New England Program ($83,191)
Racialized Ecologies of Place in the Politics of Beach Transformation. Preparing chapter in Beach Politics, edited by Setha Low.
Cultural Ecologies of Despair Island, RI. Collaborative writing project with RISD professors Mike Fink and Winnifred Lambrecht
THESIS ADVISING AND MENTORING
2021-2022 Julian Soltys, MA. Advisor on Industrial Design Master Thesis.
2020-2022 Casey Merkle, MA. Advisor on NCSS Master Thesis. Also, co-mentoring with Jesse Sayles (ORISE Fellow). Project: Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project of Southeastern New England.
2020-2021 Shreya Kaipa, BA. Co-mentoring with Jesse Sayles (ORISE Fellow). Project: Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project of Southeastern New England.
2020-2021 Ben Myers, BA — Brown University. Co-mentoring with Jesse Sayles (ORISE Fellow). Project: Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project of Southeastern New England.
2019-2020 Sarah Manion, MA. Second reader on NCSS Masters Thesis entitled, “Sensuous knitting: making practice that (re)members ecological entanglement” (2019).
ARTICLES (students that I have co-mentored are underlined)
Merkle, C., B. DuBois, J.S. Sayles, L. Carlson, H.C. Spalding, S. Kaipa, B. Myers. (2022) Self-reported effects of the covid-19 pandemic on stewardship organizations and their activities in Southeastern New England, USA. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.
DuBois, B., Lacasse, K. & Ley, A. (2021). “What’s water got to do with it?” Place related symbolic meanings alter residents’ perceived effects of coastal infrastructure. Ecopsychology.
DuBois, B., Krasny, M. E., & Russ, A. (2019). Online professional development for environmental educators: strategies to foster critical thinking and social interactions. Environmental Education Research, 1-15.
Krasny, M.E., DuBois, B. (co-lead authors), Adameit, M., Atiogbe, R., Alfakihuddin, M., Golshani, Z., González-González, R., Leung, Y., Shian-Yun, L., & Yao, Y. (2018). Addressing Access Barriers and Professional Development Among Small Group Leaders in a MOOC. The Online Learning Journal.
Giampieri, M.A., DuBois, B., Allred, S., Bunting-Howarth, K., Fisher, K., Moy, J. & Sanderson, E.W. (2017). Visions of resilience: lessons from applying a digital democracy tool in New York’s Jamaica Bay watershed. Urban Ecosystems, 1-17.
DuBois, B., Krasny, M.E. & Smith, J. (2017). Connecting Brawn, Brains, and People: An Investigation of Six Youth Stewardship Programs. Environmental Education Research, 1-18.
Krasny, M.E. & DuBois, B. (2016). Climate Adaptation Education: Embracing Reality or Abandoning Environmental Values?. Environmental Education Research, 1-12.
DuBois, B. & Krasny, M.E. (2016). Educating with Resilience in Mind: Addressing Climate Change in Post-Sandy New York City. The Journal of Environmental Education, 1-16.
Smith, JG, DuBois, B. and Corwin, J. (2016). Assessing Social Learning Outcomes Through Participatory Mind Mapping. Journal of Extension, 54(1), n1.
Smith, JG, DuBois, B., and Krasny, ME. (2016). Framing for Resilience through Social Learning: Impacts of Environmental Stewardship on Youth in Post-disturbance Communities. Sustainability Science, 1(3), 441-453.
Chan, J., DuBois, B., & Tidball, KGT. (2015). Refuges of local resilience: Community gardens in post-Sandy New York City. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 14, 625–635.
Wridt, P, Seley, J., Fisher, S. & DuBois, B. (2014). Participatory Mapping Approaches to Coordinate the Emergency Response of Spontaneous Volunteers after Hurricane Sandy. International Journal of E-Planning Research.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Chan, J., DuBois, B., Francis, C.A., Hoagland, K.D., Nemec, K.D. (2017). Community Gardens as Urban Social–Ecological Refuges in the Global North. In: WinklerPrins, E. (Ed.), Global Urban Agriculture, US National Science Foundation: CABI.
Allred, S., DuBois, B. (co-lead author), Bunting-Howarth, K., Tidball, K., & Solecki, W. (2016). Chapter 4: Social-Ecological System Transformation in Jamaica Bay. In: E. Sanderson, B. Solecki, J. Waldman, and A.S. Parris (Eds.), Prospects for Resilience: Insights from New York City’s Jamaica Bay. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Krasny, M.E., Chang, C., Hauk, M., DuBois, B. (2016). Climate Change Education. In: Russ, A. and Krasny, M. (Eds.), Urban environmental education review. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
THESES AND DISSERTATION
DuBois, B. (2016). Beaches, People and Change: A Political Ecology of Rockaway Beach Following Hurricane Sandy. PhD. Dissertation. Graduate Center at the City University of New York, New York, NY.
DuBois, B. (2012). (Un)Intended Consequence: The surf environment of Rockaway Beach, NY. MA Thesis. Graduate Center at the City University of New York, New York, NY.
DuBois, B. (2010). Theory-Based Predictors and the Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Condom Use and Problematic Drinking Among College Students. MA Thesis. University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Taplin, D. & DuBois, B. (2018) Staten Island Unit Ethnographic Overview and Assessment. Northeast Region Ethnography Program, National Park Service, Boston, MA.
DuBois, B., Allred, S., Bunting-Howarth, K., Sanderson, E.W., & Giampieri, M.A. (2017). Visionmaker.NYC: An Online Landscape Ecology Tool to Support Social-Ecological System Visioning and Planning. Journal of Extension.
Krasny, ME & DuBois, B. (23 February 2016). Will Online Courses Make Education a Human Right? Zocalo Public Square.
DuBois, B. and ME Krasny. (2015). Educating with Resilience in Mind: Environmental Education in Post-Sandy New York City. Civic Ecology Lab, Ithaca NY.
Krasny, M., J. Carey, B. DuBois, C. Lewis, J. Fraser, K. Fulton, B. Spitzer, L. Leou, J. Braus, A. Ferguson, J. Marcos-Iga, and A. Price. (2015). Climate Change and Environmental Education: Framing Perspectives. Cornell University, Ithaca NY.
DuBois, B., Allred, S.B, Tidball, K.G., Bunting-Howarth, K.E., Ferenz, G., & Filiberto, D. (2015). Past and Future Social-Ecological Systems Perspectives of Jamaica Bay: Results from an Annotated Bibliography and Focus Groups. Final report delivered to Rockefeller Foundation.
DuBois, B. (2014). Further Recommended Readings: Human Coastal Environment Relations. The People, Place, and Space Reader Website: http://peopleplacespace.org/frr/human-coastal-environment-relations/.
DuBois, B.B. and Krasny, M.E. (2014). Environmental Education Response to Hurricane Sandy in the New York Metropolitan Region. Civic Ecology Lab, Ithaca NY.
DuBois, B. B. and Tidball, K. G. (2013). Greening in Coastal New York Post-Sandy #CEL004. In Cornell Civic Ecology Lab (Ed.), Civic Ecology Lab White Paper Series (pp. 42). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
CONFERENCE PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS AND PANELS
DuBois, B. (2019). Social Sustainability and Climate Adaptation: A Case Study of Racial Coastal Formation in Rockaway, NY. EDRA 50, Brooklyn, NY.
Ley, A., DuBois, B. & LaCasse, K. (2019). Rhode Island’s Coal-Fired Conflict: How Closed-Cycle Cooling Towers Altered the Views(heds) of Mount Hope Bay Residents. 2019 New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Portland, ME.
DuBois, B. (2018). Uneven Social Sustainability of Beaches in Coastal Climate Adaptation. Boundary Spanning: Advances in Socio-Environmental Systems Research, Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, Annapolis, MD.
Ley, A., DuBois, B. & LaCasse, K. (2018). Dismantling a Dirty Dozen: How Environmental Stakeholders Saved the Bay with a Legal Strategy. 2018 Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
DuBois, B. (2017). “Demand the Sand”: Refiguring and Restoring Rockaway Beach Post-Hurricane Sandy. Dimensions of Political Ecology 2017, Lexington, KY.
Smith, J., DuBois, B, & Li, Y. (2016). Machine Learning for Qualitative Research and Evaluation. NAAEE, Madison, WI.
DuBois, B. (2016). Critique, Praxis, and Power in Urban Social-Ecological Systems. American Association of Geographers Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Sanderson, E. W., Fisher, K., Giampieri, M., Barr, J., Meixler, M., Allred, S., DuBois, B., & Parris, A. S. (2015). Visionmaker NYC: A bottom-up approach to finding shared socioeconomic pathways in New York City. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Vol. 2015, pp. NH51B-1880.
DuBois, B. (2014). Speaking of/to Power: Narratives and Power in the Spectrum of Field Research. Temple Critical Geography Conference, Philadelphia, PA.
Graham, L. & DuBois, B. (2014). The Rockaways’ Place on the Map: Civic Disparities in Recovery Planning and Policymaking after Superstorm Sandy. Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, Albuquerque, NM.
Chan, J., DuBois, B., Tidball, K.G. (2014). Places and Spaces of Resilience: Community gardens in Post-Sandy New York City. Paper presented at American Association of Geographers, Tampa, FL.
DuBois, B. (2013). The Surf Environment at Rockaway Beach, NY. Edra44, Providence, RI.
DuBois, B. (2013). Surfing and Psychology — Surfers’ Experience, Identity, and Empowerment in Context. American Psychological Association Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii.
DuBois, B., Fisher, S.R., Jaicks, H., Kimiagar, B. (2012). Putting the public back in public environmental engagement. Poster presented at The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Biennial Conference, Charlotte, NC.
DuBois, B. & Pedlow, T.P. (2010). Theory-based predictors and the role of adverse childhood experiences on condom use and problematic drinking among college students. Poster accepted for presentation at the International Conference for Behavioral Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
DuBois, B. (2005). Presumed courses of action and perspectives of adulthood in emerging adults. Poster presented at the American Psychological Association, New York, NY.
INVITED TALKS & LECTURES
DuBois, B. (2019). CityWorks Brings Community Members Together to Shape Public Space. 2019 Coastweeks, Coastal Resilience in the Urban Landscape: A Walking Tour.
DuBois, B. (2019). Non-formal Urban EE: Public Space, Climate Change, and Participation. Urban Environmental Education Online Course, Cornell University.
DuBois, B. (2019). Green Cities and Public Space. Green Cities Course, Cornell University.
DuBois, B. (2015). Towards Just Public Beaches: The Case of Rockaway Beach Post-Sandy. SustainAware/Global Kids.
DuBois, B. (2015). On Ethnography of Public Space and Urban Ecology. NYU Polytechnic.
DuBois, B. (2014). Beneath the Beach, the Sand: Conflicts over beach meaning and practices post-Sandy. Dissertation Symposium, CUNY, New York, NY.
DuBois, B. (2014). Environmental Education Response to Environmental Education in the New York Metropolitan Region. Climate Change and Environmental Education: Framing Perspectives Workshop, New York University, EE Capacity.
DuBois, B. (2014). NYC Urban EE Since Sandy. EE Capacity Webinar.
DuBois, B. & Chan, J. (2013). Community Gardens Post-Sandy Group-Think. NYC Urban Field Station, Queens, NY.
COURSES TAUGHT
Rhode Island School of Design, History, Philosophy and Social Sciences Concentration
Civic Ecologies: Attending to Difference in Urban Design
This course focuses on a key theoretical tension in urban ecological praxis; urban ecology and postcoloniality. In the first half of the course, we will engage with an appreciative inquiry approach focused on the conceptual framing of Civic Ecology. This frame draws from the field of Natural Resources Management, a field that incorporates insights from sociology, psychology and anthropology to support community-led environmental actions. In the second half of the course we will situate ecological praxis through a postcolonial lens, with a focus on the pluralities of ecological ways of knowing. Situating these practices opens up questions about whose knowledge and what ways of knowing are being utilized in ecological praxis, in this case focusing still on small ground up approaches. This course is interdisciplinary and yet remains conceptually bounded by keeping the focus on ground-up ecological praxis. Throughout the course, students will investigate their own lived-experience and positionality, developing and sharing stories of their orientation to caring for meaningful places. Through the transdisicplinary study of place, students learn about stituated stewardship practices, particularly in the context of social and environmental justice. As a final project, students create a multimedia “story” of a civic ecology practice of their choosing.
Environmental Psychology of Care:
In this class we engage with the Environmental Psychology of Care through several areas: Taking advantage of the diverse settings and opportunities of Rhode Island, this course includes field trips (such as a Lebanese Tea Room, a community designed park and a nearby pond), phenomenological experiments (e.g. traveling with a stroller or suitcase through different environments), and guest speakers. Also, the course focuses briefly on concepts of power and how they are actualized in issues such as racism, class distinctions and the like; techniques of exclusion, exploitation, deflection and distraction. Through readings, visual examples, and discussions, we will explore and analyze how the built environment enables and disables people, and what caring environments entail.
Rethinking Green Urbanism:
This is an interdisciplinary course in design-social science that I co-teach with an architecture professor. It is organized as a conversation between the instructor, guests, and students in an attempt to rethink green urbanism – where we invite students to bring their imagination, research and other skills to the table. Attention is paid to the technical, ecological and logistical but also to the broader social, political aesthetic and experiential questions that cause us to consider how we might cultivate a desire for different visions of green urban futures.
People, Parks and Public Space:
This course investigates public parks as contested cultural and ecological spaces, through an interdisciplinary lens that includes reading works from geography, urban ecology, anthropology, and environmental psychology. As an S101 course I have the students pay close attention to the writer’s disciplinary perspective and assertions, considering each of the different perspectives and their ‘projects,’ and assist them in writing a term paper.
Interpreting the Socioecology of Narragansett Bay:
This is a place-based experiential course that takes a kaleidoscopic view of Narragansett Bays’ socioecology. Specifically, students read literature relating to historical, cultural, social, and ecological aspects of the bay and watershed, meet with cultural carriers from various cultural groups and communities in the watershed, and develop a semester-long project that responds to their experiences.
Environmental Psychology:
This course offers an overview of the interdisciplinary field of environmental psychology, with emphasis on the built environment and particular focus on addressing the intertwining of social and environmental problems along with the role of design in producing social spaces.
Providence College, Psychology Department (Spring 2017, descriptions available by request)
Research Methods and Statistics + Lab | Health Psychology
John Jay College, Psychology Department (Spring & Fall 2013, descriptions available by request)
Social Psychology
Brooklyn College, Department of Children and Youth Studies (Spring & Fall 2012, description available by request)
Children of New York
FELLOWSHIPS & TRAININGS
2020- present Inclusive Writing Across the Curriculum. Teaching & Learning Lab, Center
for Social Equity & Inclusion, RISD
2020 Facilitation Practices for a Complex World. Center for Complexity, RISD.
2019 – present Play Proud Fellow (LGBTQ+ inclusive training), Streetfootballworld.
2018 Undoing Racism Workshop. People’s Institute For Survival & Beyond.
2014 – present Totten Fellow, New York City Urban Field Station, United States Forest Service.
2011 – 2012 Research Assistant Fellowship. Environmental Psychology Subprogram, The Graduate Center at CUNY
INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE
2020– present HPSS Departmental Coordinator
Supported Department Head and concentration faculty in the transition to fully remote teaching. Instituted weekly drop-in facilitated learning sessions, created a website for departmental communication, offered office hours for faculty support, and supported other departmental activities.
2020 – present RISD Curriculum Committee, Liberal Arts representative
Reviewed curriculum change requests, including syllabi and other major curriculum changes. Also, conducted institutional research and other activities to develop recommendations and motions for equitable departmental voting protocols. Also, rewrote syllabus guidelines in collaboration with Dean Barbeito.
2020 – present RISD Subcommittee on Electives
Included service as subcommittee on electives that worked to develop proposals for identifying (“tagging”) elective courses in terms of social equity and inclusion (SEI), and to study the use of tagged elective courses to enable optional curricular pathways and mandatory minimal requirements that advance RISD academic and strategic goals towards SEI.
2020 Remote Teaching Workshop Series
Invited to co-develop a series of workshops within the Teaching and Learning Lab in the Social Equity and Inclusion Office at RISD. These workshops were intended to support faculty to transition to online and hybrid teaching during the 2020-2021 school year.
CURRENT RESEARCH GROUPS AND PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Network
- Southeast New England Program (SNEP), Ecosystem Services Subcommittee
- Public Space Research Group
- Civic Ecology Lab
- Knology
- Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
- American Psychological Association, Division 34
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
I serve as a peer reviewer for numerous journals including, but not limited to, the following: Ecology and Society, The International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), Environmental Education Research, and the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Frontiers in Sustainable Cities. I have also reviewed for and/or been an external evaluator for several grant proposals and students’ master’s theses.
I am also a current member of the environmental justice advisory committee of the Southeast New England Program Network (SNEP), which works to empower communities to achieve healthy watersheds, sustainable financing and long-term climate resilience through management of stormwater and restoration projects.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
2021 – present Common Goal, LGBTQ+ Inclusion Working Group
2020 – present Rhode Island Environmental Education Association, Community
Engagement committee
2020 – present Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, Social Science Working Group.
2019 – present Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, Grant Reviewer.
2019 – present CityWorks (community design studio), DownCity Design, Co-Facilitator
2017 – present Project GOAL, coach / tutor / advocate
2017 – present Seekonk Riverbank Revitalization Alliance, Member
Leave a Reply