Tracy Perkins

Tracy Perkins is an assistant professor in the School of Social Transformation. She specializes in social inequality, social movements and the environment through a focus on environmental justice activism. Her forthcoming book, "Evolution of a Movement: Four Decades of California Environmental Justice Activism" (University of California Press, January 2022), examines the political evolution of the California environmental justice movement from the 1980s to the mid 2010s.

In addition to her academic writing, Perkins documents environmental justice activism for public audiences. Examples include Voices from the Valley: Environmental Justice in California’s San Joaquin Valley, In Her Own Words: Remembering Teresa de Anda, Pesticides Activist (1959-2014), the Buzzard Point Oral History Project in Washington DC, and a project-in-development to create a digital archive and multi-media storytelling website on a 1990s era anti-nuclear waste landfill campaign along the lower Colorado River.

Perkins previously served as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Howard University. She has a BA in development studies from University of California, Berkeley, an MS in community development from UC Davis, and a PhD in sociology from UC Santa Cruz. See more of her work at tracyperkins.org.

Education:
Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2015
M.S. Community Development, Human and Community Development Department. University of California, Davis, 2008
B.A. Development Studies, International and Area Studies Teaching Program. University of California, Berkeley, 2003

Expertise Areas:
Activism and Social Movements
Agri-Food Systems
Digital Humanities
Equity, Justice and Sustainability
Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Politics