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Tricia Wachtendorf

Professor of Sociology and Director, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware

Tricia Wachtendorf is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware and Director of the Disaster Research Center – the oldest center in the world focused on the social science aspects of disaster. Her most recent book, American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11, is coauthored with James Kendra and available through Temple University Press. Over the past three decades, her research has focused on multi-organizational coordination before, during and after disasters, improvisation, and social vulnerability to disaster events. Dr. Wachtendorf has engaged in quick response fieldwork after such events as the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, the tsunamis affecting India, Sri Lanka (2004) and Japan (2011), Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012), as well as the earthquakes in China (2008) and Haiti (2010). With numerous research grants from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, she has published widely on improvisation in disasters as well as disaster convergence.

Research Interest

​Multi-organizational coordination before, during and after disasters, transnational crises, improvisation and adaptation, and social vulnerability to disasters.

Experience

  • –present
    Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware