Dr. David Casagrande
research
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Dept. of Sociology/
Anthropology
and
the Environmental Initiative
STEPS Building, Room 436
Lehigh University
1 West Packer Ave.
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Tel: (610) 758-2672
I combine anthropology with professional experience as a policy analyst to find solutions to environmental problems. This includes researching the role of culture in managing cognitive dissonance and how this affects human behavior. I also study how information is distributed in human systems and how this affects our ability to adapt and change. I've developed many interdisciplinary research projects with colleagues from the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and public policy. My academic appointment at Lehigh is split between the university's Environmental Studies Program and Department of Sociology & Anthropology. I am a research faculty member of Lehigh's Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience.
Current research projects
- Managed retreat in response to climate change
- Sustainability Impact Assessment
- Flood recovery and mitigation
Past research projects
- Community Resilience in the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Impacts of non-conventional shale gas extraction on quality of life in Pennsylvania
- People, landscapes, and water policy in the arid American Southwest
- Social and psychological effects of ecosystem restoration
- Tzeltal Maya Medicinal Plants
- Environmental perceptions and cultural change among Marshallese in America
- Green-rumped parrotlet (Forpus passerinus) ecology & conservation
What is Information Ecology?
What is Ethnoecology?
How my research is funded
Download full CV
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Current Positions
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Lehigh University
Research Coordinator, Environmental Initiative, Lehigh University
Production Editor, Journal of Ecological Anthropology
Topic Editor, Encyclopedia of Earth
Associate Editor, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Degrees
Ph.D., University of Georgia, Ecological Anthropology
Master of Forest Science, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
B.S., Geography, Southern Connecticut State University
Languages
ENGLISH - primary, SPANISH - secondary, TZELTAL (Maya) - intermediate, GERMAN - basic
"Scientists believe in proof without certainty: most people believe in certainty without proof."
Ashley Montagu