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Positions

Coastal Carolina University

2024-present  Associate Professor, HTC Honors College

    Affiliated Faculty, Women's and Gender Studies

    Affiliated Faculty, Anthropology & Geography

2018-2024       Assistant Professor, HTC Honors College

   

Ohio Wesleyan University

2016-2018, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geology & Geography

Education

Vanderbilt University

Ph.D., Community Research and Action, August 2016
Graduate Certificate, Women's and Gender Studies

Dissertation: Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change

M.S., Community Research and Action, 2011

Thesis: Hydrologic Discourses: The Politics and Practices of Hidden Water in Nashville, TN

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

M.P.S., Environmental and Forest Biology, 2005

Concentrations: Natural History and Environmental Interpretation, Aquatic Ecology

Rutgers University

B.S., Biology

Concentration: Ecology

Competitive Grants & Awards

FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS

2025-2026          Restoration as Removal: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change, CCU Professional

                           Enhancement Grant ($5,993)

2025-2026          Engaged Education with African American Descendant Communities: Eddy Lake Cemetery Project, CCU

                           President's Council for Sustainability and Coastal Resilience, Sustainability Grant (with Jaime McCauley,

                           Madison Cates, & David Palmer) ($9,920)

2023-2025          Roots Causes of Protection Gaps for Residents in the Pee Dee and Santee Watershed Areas, Robert Wood

                           Johnson Foundation, Co-Investigator (PI: Pamela Martin & SC Dept. of Insurance) ($182,652)

2023-2025          Community-led Environmental/Flood Monitoring, Google Environmental Justice Data Fund Grant (with

                           Jaime McCauley, PI: Association for the Betterment of Bucksport) ($50,000)

2023                   Bucksport, SC: Building A Beloved Community, SC Humanities Council Grant (with Jaime McCauley) ($2000)

2023                   Flooded Afterlives: Cultivating Just Resilience with Community Science Partnerships, American Sociological

                           Association Community Action Research Initiative (CARI) Grant (with Jaime McCauley) ($2,756)

2022-2023          Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award, Institute for Citizens and Scholar ($17,500)

2022-2023          Coastal Sustainability Solutions Lab, CCU President's Council for Sustainability and Coastal Resilience Grant                              (with Pam Martin, Jaime McCauley, & Antony Setari) ($8,822)

2022-2023          Sustainable Community Development in Action, CCU President's Council for Sustainability and Coastal                                      Resilience Grant (with Jaime McCauley) ($4,046)  

2020-2021          Broadening Participation in Engineering, National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate

       Competitive Research. Co-Principal Investigator $10,000 (PI: Monica Gray)

2019-2020          Course Development Grant, Coastal Office of Online Learning ($3,000)

2019-2020          Planting Justice, Building Community: Conway Community Garden Project, CCU Interdisciplinary Experiential

                            Learning Grant (with Jaime McCauley, Darcy Coughlan, & Dominique Cagalanan) ($3,000)

Jan-May 2019    Faculty Mentee, CCU Faculty Peer Mentoring Program for Education Abroad Development ($3,818)

January 2019     Sponsored Workshop Fellow, National Science Foundation Workshop on Community Geography ($450) 

July-Aug 2017   National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Scholar in Space, Place, and the Humanities ($2,700)
2015 – 2016       AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship ($20,000)

2015 – 2016       Graduate Writing Fellow, Vanderbilt University Writing Studio ($25,000) (declined)

2015 – 2016       Peabody Honors Scholarship ($5,000)

2009 – 2014       Vanderbilt University Graduate Fellowship ($50,000)

2009 – 2014       Peabody College Dean’s Fellowship ($5,000)

AWARDS & HONORS

2024     Education for Sustainable Development Honorable Mention Project Award, Global United Nations Regional Centres

             of Expertise

2024.    Nominated for Distinguished Professor of the Year Award, Coastal Carolina University

2023     Provost's Award for Public Engagement, Outreach, and Service, Coastal Carolina University

2022     Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award, Institute for Citizens and Scholars

2022.    Outstanding Women's and Gender Studies-Affiliated Faculty of the Year Award, Coastal Carolina University    

2015     Invited member of the Global Feminisms Collaborative, Vanderbilt University

2015     Participant in the “Critical Physical Geography” AAG Pre-conference Workshop, Chicago, IL

2012     Outstanding Instructor in Human and Organizational Development Award, Vanderbilt University

2012     Competitively selected to attend the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College (funding

             provided by Vanderbilt University American Studies Department)

2010     Competitively selected for an NSF-funded workshop on “Graph Theory and Biological Networks” at the

             National Institute for Math and Biological Synthesis in Knoxville, TN

2008     Citizen’s Committee for NYC Better Neighborhood Grant, Awarded for “Bushwick Youth-Led Community

             Food Assessment” 

Publications

BOOK CHAPTERS

2025     "Participatory Methods." In: The Field Guide to Mixing Social and Biophysical Methods in Environmental
             
Research (Rebecca Lave & Stuart N. Lane, eds.). Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishing.

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES

2024     "Amplified voices, organized ignorance, and epistemic justice: Examining the impact of community-science

              partnerships for environmental justice." Journal of Sustainability Education 30. (with Jaime McCauley)

2021     "Engaging the complexities of community: Conflict and difference in community-engaged

              research." GeoJournal 

2017     “Stigmatized places as therapeutic landscapes: The beneficial dimensions of riverbottom homeless

              encampments.” Medicine Anthropology Theory 4(1): 123-150.

2013     "Crowdsourcing Urban Surveillance: The Development of Homeland Security Markets for Environmental

              Sensor Networks," Geoforum 49: 279-288 (with Torin Monahan).

2010     "Sensing Environmental Danger in the City," International Review of Information Ethics 12: 21-27

              (with Torin Monahan).

Presentations

INVITED TALKS

"Community Inclusion for Science-based Information." Panelist. South Carolina Sea Grant Research Symposium, May 2024.

“Homelessness, Housing, & Environmental Justice.” Vanderbilt University, Department of Human & Organizational Development, March 2022.

“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Coastal Carolina University, University College Honors Program, February 2018.

“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” University of Kentucky, Department of Geography, January 2018.

“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Bates College, Department of Environmental Studies, January 2017.

“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Wofford College, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, December 2016.

“The Work of Hygiene and Pollution in Urban River Restoration.” Michigan State University, Department of Community Sustainability, February 2016.

“Restoring the Floodplain, Constructing the Natural: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Michigan State University, Department of Community Sustainability, March 2015.

“Ethnographic Methods for Community Engaged Justice Research.” Vanderbilt University Critical Methodology Working Group, March 2015.

CONFERENCE PANELS ORGANIZED OR CHAIRED

"Practicing Community Geography: I, II, & III." Panels organized and chaired at American Association of Geographers meeting, Honolulu, HI, April 2024 (with Jennifer Mapes)

"Practicing Community Geography: I, II, & III." Panels organized and chaired at American Association of Geographers meeting, Denver, CO, March 2023 (with Jennifer Mapes)

"Critical Methods for Community-Engaged Socio-Environmental Research." Panel organized and chaired at American Association of Geographers meeting, Washington, DC, April 2019 (with Nathan Rowley).

“Debt as Social Obligation.” Panel organized at American Studies Association, Washington, DC, November 2013 (with Brian Murphy and Megan Black).

“Urban Plans, Technologies, and Narratives.” Chair. American Anthropological Association meeting, Montreal, November 2011.

 

SELECTED CONFERENCE PAPERS

"Successes and Challenges in Community Engaged Research: A Response to the Past President's Address." Panelist. American Association of Geographers meeting in Detroit, MI, March 2025.

"Navigating Complex Relationships and Broken Trust in Community-Engaged Research." Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers meeting in Honolulu, HI, April 2024.

"Addressing Heirs' Property on a Community Level in Bucksport, SC." Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers meeting in Denver, CO, March 2023.

"Practicing Community Geography with Students in the Flooded Afterlives Project." Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers virtual meeting, February 2022.

"The Impacts of Repetitive Flooding on People and Places of the South Carolina Lowcounty." Poster presented at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Conference on Place and Health, November 2021.

"Defining 'Community' in Community Geography Research." Presented at American Association of Geographers virtual meeting, April 2021.

"Community-Engaged Research Across Conflict and Difference." Paper presented at American Association of Geographers meeting, Denver, CO, April 2020. (cancelled due to Covid-19)

"The Complexities of Community: Engendering Change Through Ethnographic Research Across Difference." Paper presented at American Association of Geographers meeting, Boston, MA, April 2017.

“Scholar-Activism: Navigating Theory and Methodology in Critically Engaged and Situated Work” panel participant at 23rd Annual Conference on Critical Geography, Lexington, KY, October 2016.

“Exploring the Politics of Sensing Through Participatory Methods.” Paper presented at American Association of Geographers meeting, San Francisco, CA, March 2016.

“The Work of Hygiene and Pollution in the Restoration of Riverbottom Homeless Encampments.” Paper presented at American Association of Geographers meeting, Chicago, IL, April 2015.

“The Politics of Security and Invasion in Urban Stream Restoration.” Paper presented at Dimensions of Political Ecology meeting, Lexington, KY, February 2015.

“I’m the Cleanest Hobo I Know.” Poster at UNC Water and Health Conference, Chapel Hill, NC, Oct 2014.

“Preservation or Progress: Development, Power, and the Future of Place in Bells Bend, TN.” American Studies Association meeting in Washington, DC, Nov. 2013.

“Disaster for Whom?: The Politics of Security and Invasion in Urban Stream Restoration.” Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) meeting in San Diego, CA, October 2013.

“Buried Streams and Hidden Narratives: A Sociomaterial Approach to Understanding Urban Water.” Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2012.

“Intersecting Human and Physical Geographies in the Creation of Place.” American Association of Geographers meeting in Seattle, WA, April 2011.

 

INVITED PUBLIC TALKS

"Flooding and the SELL Highway." Horry County Council Meeting, February 2023.

"Bucksport Heirs' Property Study Findings." Association for the Betterment of Bucksport, September 2022.

"Bucksport Community Housing Assessment--Overview." Association for the Betterment of Bucksport, SC, April 2022.

“The Political Economy of Current Initiatives in Housing Reform.” Public Forum on Ventura County’s Housing Crisis, Ventura, CA, June 2014.

“Water Footprints, Society, and Justice.” Gardening Partners of Dickson County, Dickson, TN, June 2012.

“Youth Documenting Fast Food, Slow Food, and No Good Food in the Community.” Baum Forum: Schools, Food, and Community at Columbia University in New York, April 2008.

Professional Service

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee member, American Association of Geographers, 2024-present

Secretary, Community Geographies Collaborative specialty group, American Association of Geographers, 2022-2024

Secretary, Leadership Board, Community Geographies Collaborative, 2021-2024

Founding Steering Committee Member, Community Geographies Collaborative, December 2019-preent

Faculty Success Program Coach, National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), 2024-present

Lower Winyah Coalition member, North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 2023-present

Wetlands Advisory Group member, Coastal Conservation League, 2022-2024

Bucksport Community Partnership member, 2022-present

Reviewer (Journals):     ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies

                            Geographical Review

                            GeoJournal

                            Landscape and Urban Planning

                            Social and Health Sciences

                            Social Science & Medicine

                            The Geography Teacher

Reviewer (Foundations):     Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women Studies, Institute for Citizens and Scholars

                                              Newcombe Doctoral Disseration Fellowship, Institute for Citizens and Scholars

University Service

COASTAL CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

2024-2025       Chair, Honors College Promotion and Tenure Committee

2024-2025       Honors College Assistant Professor Search Committee

2024                Honors College Visiting Assistant Professor Search Committee

2023-present  CCU Faculty Senate

2023                Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement Committee

2022                Honors Faculty Fellow Search Committee

2021-2022       Sustainability Lecturer Search Committee

2021-2023       President's Council on Sustainability & Coastal Resilience, Coastal Carolina University

2021-2022       Honors College Policy Committee

2020-present  Women's and Gender Studies Advisory Board

2020-2023       Graduate Council

2019-present  University Senate Faculty Development Committee

2019-2021       Sustainability Program Advisory Group

2019                Teacher-Scholar Showcase Organizing Committee

2019                Mentor, CINO Elevate student mentoring program

2018-2020       LGBTQIA+ Faculty & Staff Caucus

 

VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY

2011                Mentor, Leadership Alliance minority student summer research program

2011-2012       Dean’s Graduate Programming Committee

2010-2016       Minority Student Committee, Dept. of Human and Organizational Development

2010-2013       Co-facilitated three department-wide discussions on the topic of interdisciplinarity

Professional Associations

American Studies Association

Association of American Geographers

(Sections: Community Geographies Collaborative, Cultural and Political Ecology; Health & Medical Geography)

Ecological Society of America

Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S)

© 2017 Jennifer T. Mokos

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