Erin Eldridge

PROFILE: Dr. Erin R. Eldridge is an Assistant Teaching Professor of anthropology at UNC Charlotte. She is a cultural and environmental anthropologist, with a background in botany and wildlife and fisheries science. Her research focuses on political ecological concerns, structural violence, bureaucracy, the intersections of development and disasters, and occasionally, ethnomusicology. Dr. Eldridge has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in West Africa, Central America, and the Appalachian South. More recent research focuses on disaster preparedness, relief, and recovery in the Southeastern United States.

EDUCATION:

• PhD, University of Tennessee, Knoxville – Department of Anthropology 2013
• MA, University of Tennessee, Knoxville – Department of Anthropology 2005
• BS, Tennessee Technological University – Department of Biology 1998

RECENT TEACHING:

• Introduction to Anthropology
• Critical Thinking and Communication
• Environmental Justice and Disasters
• Environmental Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology topics courses

AWARDS/HONORS/GRANTS:

• Weather Ready Research Grant, Natural Hazards Center, 2021
• Teacher of the Year, Sociology Department, Fayetteville State University 2019
• Outstanding Online Course Design Award, Fayetteville State University 2017
• W.K. McClure Fund for the Study of World Affairs, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 2003

PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS: (Also See Google Scholar Profile)

• Eldridge, Erin R. and Amanda J. Reinke. 2024. “Waiting in Mold after Hurricanes and Flooding.” Journal of Disaster Studies 1(1): 23-46. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/936409
• Reinke, Amanda J., Jaymelee J. Kim, and Erin R. Eldridge. 2022. “The March 2020 Tennessee Tornados: Risk Perceptions, Preparedness, and Communication.” Natural Hazards Center Weather Ready Research Report Series, 2. Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder. https://hazards.colorado.edu/weather-ready-research/the-march-2020-tennessee-tornados-risk-perceptions-preparedness-and-communication

• Kim, Jaymelee J., Erin R. Eldridge, Amanda J. Reinke, and Sierra Williams. 2021. “Digitally-Shaped Ethnographic Relationships During a Global Pandemic and Beyond.” Qualitative Research 0(0):1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941211052275
• Kim, Jaymelee J., Amanda J. Reinke, Erin R. Eldridge, and Maya Grant. 2020. “Between Georgia and Ohio: Constructing the Covid-19 Disaster in the United States.” Anthropology Today 36(4): 17-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8322.12591
• Reinke, Amanda J. and Erin R. Eldridge. 2020. “Navigating the ‘Bureaucratic Beast’ in North Carolina Hurricane Recovery.” Human Organization 79(2): 107-116. https://doi.org/10.17730/1938-3525.79.2.107
• Eldridge, Erin R. 2018. “Administrating Violence Through Coal Ash Policies and Practices.” Conflict and Society 4(1):99-115. DOI https://doi.org/10.3167/arcs.2018.040109
• Eldridge, Erin R. and Amanda J. Reinke. 2018. “Ethnographic Engagement with Bureaucratic Violence: Introduction.” Conflict and Society 4(1):94-98. DOI https://doi.org/10.3167/arcs.2018.040108
• Button, Gregory V. and Erin R. Eldridge. 2016. “A Poison Runs Through It: The Elk River Chemical Spill in West Virginia.” In Contextualizing Disaster, edited by Gregory V. Button and Mark Schuller. Vol. 1 of Catastrophes in Context, edited by Gregory V. Button, Anthony Oliver-Smith, and Mark Schuller. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/ButtonContextualizing
• Eldridge, Erin R. 2015. “The Continuum of Coal Violence and Post-Coal Possibilities in the Appalachian South.” Journal of Political Ecology 22: 279-298. https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/21109