Prof. Dr. Teresa Sabol Spezio

Teresa Sabol Spezio’s research interests include the historical relationship between humans and human-created industrial pollution. Her current research project creates a historical narrative that reveals the interconnections between humanS, industrial pollution, and human desire to “contain” pollution so that it no longer encounters human bodies or their environments. Using the process of identifying, categorizing, and controlling uncontrolled hazardous waste sites that took place in the United States beginning in 1980 as a frame, she follows the social network of actors as they moved from removing or destroying contaminants to containing pollution on site as the preferred method for remediation. As the impacts of climate change are getting more and more severe, and fires, floods, and droughts are occuring with increased frequency, human attempts to control and/or contain the effects of global climate change reveal that containment has failed. With every flood, hurricane, or extreme weather event, the pollution escapes from hazardous waste sites and threatens communities. Containment has been seen as a panacea for pollution control but climate change uncovers its limitations.

RCC Research Project: Containment: A Solution to Environmental Pollution

Selected Publications:

• “‘An Inevitable Consequence’: Changing Ideas of Prevention in the Wake of Catastrophic Events.” Journal of Policy History 32, no. 4 (2020): 412–438. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0898030620000160.
• “The Santa Barbara Oil Spill and its Effect on United States Environmental Policy.” Sustainability 10, no. 8 (2018): 2750. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082750.
• Slick Policy: Environmental and Science Policy in the Aftermath of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018.
• “Teaching Sustainability Using a Focused Multidisciplinary Approach.” Ekonomska i ekohistorija 11, no. 11 (2015): 33–42.
• with Andrew L. Chang, Judah D. Grossman, Heidi W. Weiskel, Julia C. Blum, Jennifer W. Burt, Adrianna A. Muir, Jonah Piovia-Scott, Kari E. Veblen, and Edwin D. Groshol. “Tackling Aquatic Invasions: Risks and Opportunities for the Aquarium Industry.” Biological Invasions 11, no. 4 (2009): 773–85.