About Dr. Rebecca Clausen
Dr. Rebecca Clausen is a professor of Sociology and Human Services at Fort Lewis College. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the Environment and Sustainability department. Clausen is an environmental sociologist whose research interests include the social drivers of environmental change, the political economy of global food systems, and social and cultural understandings of water justice.
Books
“The Tragedy of the Commodity: Oceans, Fisheries, and Aquaculture,” co-author, Rutgers University Press, 2015
Selected Publications
"Relational Teaching and Just Energy Transitions: A Case Study from a Native-Serving Institution." Case Studies in the Environment, 9(1), Hilimire, K., Larkins, M. L., Clausen, R., & Williams, J., 2025
“Diné Research Reframes the Gold King Mine Spill: Understanding Social and Spiritual Impacts Across Time and Space.” Journal of Rural Studies 97: 449-457. Clausen, R., C. Chief, N. Teufel-Shone, M. Begay, P. Charley, P. Beamer, N. Anako, K. Chief, 2023
“Development of Culturally Anchored Qualitative Approach to Conduct and Analyze Focus Group Narratives Collected in Diné (Navajo) Communities to Understand the Impacts of the Gold King Mine Spill of 2015.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18: 9402. Teufel-Shone, N., C. Chief, J. Richards, R. Clausen, A. Yazzie, M. Begay, N. Lathrop, J. Yazzie, A. Begay, P. Beamer, K. Chief, 2021
“From Sea Slaves to Slime Lines: Commodification and Unequal Ecological Exchange in Global Marine Fisheries.” Pp 195-219 in Ecologically Unequal Exchange, edited by Scott Frey, Paul Gellert, and Harry Dahms. Palgrave Macmillan. Clark, B., S. Longo, R. Clausen, D. Auerbach, 2018
"Commodification and Unequal Ecological Exchange in Global Marine Fisheries.” Pp 195-219 in Ecologically Unequal Exchange, edited by Scott Frey, Paul Gellert, and Harry Dahms. Palgrave Macmillan.
"Sustainability and Environmental Sociology: Putting the Economy in its Place and Moving Toward an Integrative Socio-Ecology," co-author, Sustainability Journal, 2016
“Metabolic Rifts and Restoration: Agricultural Crises and the Potential of Cuba’s Organic, Socialist Approach to Food Production,” co-author, World Review of Political Economy, 2015
“Capitalism and the Commodification of Salmon: From Wild Fish to a Genetically Modified Species,” co-author, Monthly Review, 2014
“The Tragedy of the Commodity and the Farce of AquAdvantage Salmon,” co-author, Development and Change, 2012
Selected Book Chapters
“Social Impacts of the Gold King Mine Spill to Animas-San Juan Watershed Communities.” Pp 190-217 in Gold Metal Waters: The Animas River and the Gold King Mine Spill of 2015, edited by Brad Clark and Peter McCormick, University Press of Colorado: Louisville. Clausen, R., T. Montoya, K. Chief, S. Chischilly, J. Yazzie, J. Turner, L.M. Jacobs, A. Merchant, 2021
“From Ocean to Plate: Catching Farming," Clausen, R., S. Longo, B. Clark, 2018
“Fishy Business: Genetic Engineering and Salmon Aquaculture,” co-author, in Genetically Modified Organisms in Foods, Elsevier, 2015
“The Tragedy of the Commodity and the Overexploitation of Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna,” co-author, in Environmental Sociology: From Analysis to Action, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2013
“Food, Forests and Freshwater: A World-System Analysis of Environmental Impact,” in Routledge Handbook of World-Systems Analysis, New York: Routledge, 2012
Book Reviews
“Listen to Your Gut,” [Review of the book; Greed to Green: Solving Climate Change and Remaking the Economy], Monthly Review, 2013
“Time to Pay the Piper: The Accumulation of Debt in Patriarchal Capitalism.” [Review of the book; EcoSufficiency and Global Justice], Monthly Review, 2010
Selected Conference Presentations
“AquAdvantage Salmon, The Tragedy of the Commodity, and the Biological Speed-Up,” co-author, presented at the Society for Human Ecology, Bar Harbor, Maine, 2014
“The Tragedy of the Commodity and the Farce of AquAdvantage Salmon,” presented at the International Institute of Social Sciences ‘Nature, Inc.’ Conference, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2011
“Tragedy of the Treadmill: Examining oceanic degradation in The Mediterranean Bluefin tuna fishery and development of offshore aquaculture,” presented at the Annual American Sociological Association Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, 2010