Shirley Laska
Shirley Laska is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Founding Past Director of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans (UNO-CHART). Her specialties include hazard mitigation, long-term recovery and enhancement of community resiliency through community engagement processes. Multiple powerful hurricanes, the catastrophic BP oil spill and massive coastal land loss all occurring in the coastal Louisiana area occupy her applied research time as has the tornado which struck her Massachusetts hometown in 2011.
Laska is currently completing research on a project to introduce Traditional Ecological Knowledge to scientific coastal restoration decision-making; on an analysis of the role of live talk-show hosted radio in disaster recovery and response (Google ‘Laska citizen responders’ for the e-report); ‘ground zero’ Katrina social science researchers; the question of whether the BP oil spill created corrosive communities as occurred after the Exxon Valdez; and the impact of the BP spill on Gulf coast residents three years after. She is beginning a project on the enhancement of interdisciplinary collaborative research capacity by environmental and disaster graduate students and has created an applied non-profit organization, the Lowlander Center, with Kristina Peterson, focusing on social dynamics of coastal, climate-change impacts of sea level rise, especially the adaptation needed for quality of community life before relocation is required. She is a member of the Natural Hazards Mitigation Association.