I'm currently working on field statements on the Political and Cultural Ecology and Political Communications on Digital Networks.

My recent research has focused on the transition away from a coal-based economy in the Central Appalachian Basin; here are some of the parts of that project that have begun to take shape:

• a critical analysis of Joe Sacco's comics representations of mountaintop removal mining in Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt;
• a comparative analysis of activist and scholarly counter-mapping of various indicators of the decline of coal,
• an analysis of community-based decision making about sustainable development in the region which interrogates the role of market-based solutions in the discourses shaping these processes,
• an examination of the relationships between "War on Coal" advertising and the project of government legitimacy in Risk Societies,
• an exploration of what STS approaches could contribute to our understanding of AEP's Mountaineer Carbon Capture and Storage project in New Haven, WV.

As a side theoretical project, I'm also working on a paper about Nietzschean and Heideggerian thought in environmental ethics.

Location

4400 University Drive, 5E4, Fairfax, VA 22030

Disciplines

• Cultural Studies and Ethnic Studies

Affiliation

George Mason University

Website

http://richardtoddstafford.com