Faculty Profile
Heather Bedi
(she/her/hers)Associate Professor of Environmental Studies (2014)
Contact Information
Kaufman Hall Room 110
717.254.8168
Bio
Dr. Heather Plumridge Bedi's research examines how civil society and socio-environmental movements experience and adapt to natural resource and landscape modifications related to energy processes, climate change, industrialization, and agricultural transitions. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright Program, the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust, the UK-India Education Research Initiative, the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, and a Mellon Foundation grant at Dickinson College. Her broader research and teaching interests include environmental and social justice, political ecology, development, planning, and just energy transitions. Her current work examines the everyday of energy poverty, solar energy access, and climate change vulnerabilities in South Asia. Dr. Bedi also examines energy injustice through the lens of shale gas extraction (fracking) in the United States. Dr. Bedi’s published work appears in Contemporary South Asia; Development and Change; Economic and Political Weekly; Energy Research and Social Science; Environment and Planning, A; Geoforum; Journal of Contemporary Asia; and Oxford Development Studies. She serves on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Justice Advisory Board and the Cumberland County Food Systems Alliance's board. Dr. Bedi received the American Association of Geographer's Harm de Blij Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Education
- B.A., Occidental College, 2000
- M.S., University of Michigan, 2002
- Ph.D., University of Cambridge, 2012
2022-2023 Academic Year
Fall 2022
FDST 250 Env Rsch Meth & Civic Engagemt
Cross-listed with ENST 390-01.This participatory class provides the opportunity for students to apply research methods to a real-world environmental need. Students will learn core environmental research methods skills, complete Institutional Research Board ethics in research training, and will apply select research methods to complete a project for a community partner. While the research methods structure for the class will remain constant, the theme for the civic engagement component will adjust each time the course is taught, dependent on community need. The final project format will also vary dependent on community partner needs. The class will present findings to the community partner. Students will gain tangible environmental research method skills in the course while creating a product requested by a community partner.
ENST 330 Environmental Policy
This course examines the effect of environmental policies on environmental quality, human health and/or the use of natural resources at local, national and international levels. It considers the ways scientific knowledge, economic incentives and social values merge to determine how environmental problems and solutions are defined, how risks are assessed and how and why decisions are made. The course examines a range of tools, processes and patterns inherent in public policy responses and covers issues ranging from air and water pollution and toxic and solid waste management to energy use, climate change and biodiversity protection. A combination of lectures, case studies, and field trips will be used.
Prerequisite: 161 and 162, or permission of instructor.
ENST 390 Env Rsch Meth & Civic Engagemt
Cross-listed with FDST 250-02. This participatory class provides the opportunity for students to apply research methods to a real-world environmental need. Students will learn core environmental research methods skills, complete Institutional Research Board ethics in research training, and will apply select research methods to complete a project for a community partner. While the research methods structure for the class will remain constant, the theme for the civic engagement component will adjust each time the course is taught, dependent on community need. The final project format will also vary dependent on community partner needs. The class will present findings to the community partner. Students will gain tangible environmental research method skills in the course while creating a product requested by a community partner. ENST 161.
Spring 2023
ENST 338 A Just Energy Transition
Permission of instructor required. Part of the Sustainability and Energy Transition in Germany Mosaic.
ENST 500 Independent Study
Permission of instructor required. Part of the Sustainability and Energy Transition in Germany Mosaic.
