Chie Togami
PhD Candidate in Sociology
University of Pittsburgh
Research Statement
Broadly speaking, my research spans environmental sociology, social movements, and gender. My dissertation addresses the organizational dynamics of new climate change movements and the impact of funding sources on movements’ strategic decision-making. Specifically, I interrogate the role and impact of philanthropy asking: what are the implications of climate movements relying upon funding from philanthropic foundations? In addition to my dissertation project, I have researched and written about air quality, environmental justice, and epistemology in Western Pennsylvania. In 2021, I produced a limited series podcast about the social and environmental legacy of the U.S. Steel Corporation. More recently, I have collaborated on a project that examines the global environmental justice impacts of the Biden-Harris lead service line replacement initiative. My work on gender explores the intersection of gender and environmental social movements. In 2021, I co-authored a chapter “Women and Environmental Movements” for the Routledge Handbook of Environmental Social Movements. Presently, I am co-authoring an article that uses the example of climate activism to argue for the merits of thinking about gender and multiple masculinities as constituted by constellations of accountable situated practice.
Keywords: environment, social movements, collective action, resource mobilization, gender, philanthropy, air quality, environmental justice,
ARTICLE
The Politics of Airing Grievances: An Analysis of Air Quality Knowledge and Ignorance in Pittsburgh (2024)
Chie Togami and Michael Murphy
Pittsburgh’s airshed is among the most surveilled and studied in the United States, yet its residents continue to endure some of the worst air quality in the United States. In 2016, in response to the decades-long failure of the local Board of Health to take decisive action against regional polluters, Pittsburgh residents began documenting their air quality complaints using the Smell Pittsburgh app.
BOOK REVIEW
Book Review: Gender and Social Movements by Jo Reger (in Gender & Society 2022)
Chie Togami
Jo Reger’s Gender and Social Movements explores the complex intersection of gender and social movements, puzzling through the many ways that each influences the other. As Reger acknowledges from the outset, one challenge of this endeavor is parsing the multiple meanings of “gender.”
BOOK CHAPTER
Gender and Environmental Movements (2022)
Chie Togami and Suzanne Staggenborg
This chapter examines how gender influences the mobilization of environmental movements. Participation in different types of environmental movements varies by gender, as differences in recruitment and participation are related to women’s roles in their families and communities and to mobilizing structures and networks associated with those roles.
IN PREPARATION
Environmental Justice Victory? Waste Colonialism and the Afterlife of Lead Water Pipes
Chie Togami, Caitlin Schroering, Talor Musil, and Marcela González Rivas
Climate Change Frames, Social Movements, and Gendered Practice
Chie Togami and Lisa Brush
Public Sociology
MOBILIZING IDEAS BLOG
PODCAST
New Hope for Climate Activism (2019)
Chie Togami and Suzanne Staggenborg
Climate change is an unprecedented threat to our planet, a catastrophic emergency that is happening now – glaciers are melting, coral reefs are bleaching, and countries all over the world are experiencing extreme weather events such as devastating floods, fires, and storms. It is both maddening and puzzling why we did not take more action much sooner to save the planet.
Chie Togami
Extraction is a three-part podcast that traces the history of the United States Steel Corporation, the world’s first billion-dollar company, from its founding in 1901 through today, presenting stories of people and places from which U.S. Steel has extracted natural resources and labor. Available to stream on Spotify.
Teaching
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Capstone Research Seminar (Fall 2020); Sociology (22 students; co-instructor)
Social Problems (Summer 2019); Sociology (17 students; instructor of record)
Statistics 200 (Spring 2019);(100 students; teaching assistant)
Deviance and Social Control (Fall 2018); Sociology (100 students; teaching assistant)
Introduction to Sociology (Spring 2018 & Spring 2017); Sociology (100 students; teaching assistant) Sociology of Gender (Summer 2018); Sociology (4 students; instructor of record)
Social Problems (Fall 2017); Sociology (100 students; teaching assistant)
Sociology of Gender (Fall 2016); Sociology (100 students; teaching assistant)
Contact
Email: chie.togami@pitt.edu
Mailing Address: Wesley W. Posvar Hall
230 S Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh PA