Dr. Beymer-Farris comes to Furman from the University of Illinois, Urbana Chanpaign where she completed her Ph.D. in Geography. As the new Sustainability Science hire in the EES Department, she will teach Principles of Sustainability Science (SUS 120) and Social Systems (SUS 241) courses this year. In teaching these courses, her role will be to motivate students to critically examine the dynamic social-ecological processes underlying the formation and change of place and space, and how they hold the potential to affect change.
The integration of ecology with environmental politics and global economic development lies at the core of Dr. Beymer-Farris’s research interests. Dr. Beymer-Farris is a political ecologist who draws heavily from the literatures of social-ecological resilience, environmental history, and political economy. She has spent over ten years in Tanzania researching human-environmental dynamics of development issues related to global climate change, biodiversity conservation, forestry, fisheries, and aquaculture. She is interested in “sustainably utilized” landscapes, carbon forestry (e.g. Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation or "REDD+"), marine protected areas, alternative food networks, and in (re)conceptualizing social-ecological resilience.
Dr. Beymer-Farris’s office is within the EES Office Suit (Room 119A) in Plyler Hall. She can be reached by phone at 294-2505 or by email at Betsy.Beymer-Farris@furman.edu. Please join us in welcoming Betsy to Furman and Greenville.
