BU Institute for Sustainability: Meet the BUSSW Professor Rethinking How Researchers Work with Communities During Natural Disaster Recovery
Darien Alexander Williams, assistant professor at the Boston University School of Social Work, was recently featured in a Q&A on climate justice by the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS).
The piece spotlights Williams’ work at the intersection of climate justice, emergency management, and community-based research, and the relationship-driven model he’s building to ensure that disaster recovery benefits everyone, not just those with the most resources.
From the Q&A:
“The different model that we’re trying to build involves working more slowly over time, so there becomes a very organic interest led by people who live in that neighborhood, not just by us scientists. Research questions come out of the relationship built between us.”
The interview traces Williams’ path from urban planning and disaster recovery work following Hurricane Matthew in North Carolina to his current research, which includes a Florida Sea Grant-funded spatial justice study in Jacksonville and a newly expanded international collaboration supported by the Belmont Forum and the National Science Foundation, with research teams in Vietnam, Turkey, Ecuador, Norway, and the UK.
Read the full Q&A on the IGS website.
Learn more about Professor Williams’ work