Brian F. O’Neill (Ph.D. 2022 – University of Illinois/ 2023 – Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) is environmental sociologist and ethnographer focusing on infrastructure, the politics of climate change adaptation, and social inequalities. He currently holds the position of postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. Much of his work seeks to mobilize the productive intellectual tensions at the intersections of sociology, political ecology, science and technology studies, and the policy sciences. Specifically, his research revolves around the problematization of climate adaptation policies. In so doing, he takes a specific interest in what are sometimes described as “unconventional” infrastructural practices at the frontier zones of nature/society (e.g., desalination, hydraulic fracturing, maritime surveillance, offshore wind energy) as these reveal the emerging political dynamics of the so-called “Anthropocene.” Such a focus informs points of departure from mainstream understandings of notions like “adaptation,” “sustainability,” “transparency,” or even “environmental justice,” none of which can be taken for granted. Rather, his work analyzes how such concepts are increasingly located and politicized at the boundaries of popular discourse, the field of policymaking, and various scientific fields. Brian’s current book project, titled: Disciplining Waters, draws from his historical ethnography of the desalination industry as a means to understand how the ocean became enrolled, and politicized as a specifically capitalist resource frontier from the close of the second world war to the present day. His work has been published in a variety of venues, such as Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Journal of World-systems Research, International Sociology, The Sociological Quarterly, Visual Studies,Human Geography, and more.

When Brian is not reading and writing at his desk or researching in the field, he enjoys a number of productive distractions that feed into his scholarly practice. Namely, he is an avid photographer and art critic. For example, he helps run the independent publishing house, Immaterial Books and frequently writes for The Photobook Journal, specializing in urban and environmental issues. He is also a long-time baseball fan.

Dr. Matthew Jerome Schneider is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the co-director of the Sustainability, Equity, and Action (SEA) Lab, and a visiting scholar with the Ocean Nexus Center. His work is situated in the areas of race and racism, social inequalities, environmental sociology, and community and civic engagement. His most recent projects consider how local stakeholders interpret and respond to various environmental issues. For example, in one line of research, he examines American support for expansion of renewable energy production (e.g., wind and solar) and for a “just transition.” Specifically, by exploring the emerging offshore wind industry in North Carolina, USA, this project attempts to better tease out the tension between just transition discourse and an ongoing history of extractive logics. In a second line of research, he is collaborating with Winyah Rivers Alliance, a riverkeeper organization in Coastal North and South Carolina, USA, to better understand local environmental activism and volunteering during a time in which publics are increasingly aware of the pressing climate crisis, environmental injustices, and threats to public health. Schneider’s recent work has appeared in outlets such as Qualitative Sociology, Human Geography, Sociological Quarterly, and Environmental Justice.

In his free time, Matt enjoys hiking with his dogs, biking, playing or watching basketball, and sipping coffee.

Dr. Yoshitaka Ota is the founder of Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus, a scholarly network of ocean researchers who devoted their research to advance ocean equity. Dr. Ota believes that all ocean policy and intervention shall be ‘anti-inequity’, explicitly designed and implemented to eliminate systemic issues, such as racism, colonial legacy and gender discrimination through ocean governance. This conceptual core is stemmed from a mount of evidence that Ocean Nexus offers by the research and further the network find that any conservation and sustainability effort for ocean environment ultimately fails to deliver the outputs without addressing social equity as the outcome.

At the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Ota is a Professor of Marine Affairs. Dr. Ota graduated University College London with Ph.D. in Anthropology and worked in Universities and research institutes of UK, Japan, Canada and US as a researcher and professor. He has over 100 research publications, book chapters and reports. Dr. Ota has held the Professor of Practice position at the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs in University of Washington and have had various visiting and affiliate positions in US and Canada. He also has the Executive Masters of Public Administration from Evans Policy School in University of Washington.