Meet...Kelly Moore

The Sociology Department’s newest assistant professor, Kelly Moore, arrived at the university with a lot of enthusiasm about its future: “I am excited to be a part of a lively urban university and a department with vibrant intellectual communities.” She is also pleased with the way the department and the university are “meeting the challenges of higher education in the 21st century head-on in creative ways.”

Moore’s teaching experiences at Columbia University’s Barnard Women’s College and Brooklyn College of the City University of New York make her a valuable addition to an institution working toward the UC|21 goal of forging key relationships and partnerships. A sociologist in the areas of science, the environment, and organizations and social movements, her research focuses on the politics of knowledge- specifically the contests over scientific and environmental claims and ideas.

Her forthcoming book,

Disrupting Science

, investigates different forms of mid-twentieth century scientists’ political activism. Moore examined “three models of scientists in public political engagement.” She discusses scientists who wanted to prevent colleagues from taking war-related work, those who wished to provide the public with information on health and atomic weapons, and those who sought to educate peers on the extent to which science is used. The final section is dedicated to demonstrating how scientific knowledge itself is implicated in race, class, gender, and power relationships. “The book concludes that these activities had the effect of undermining the idea that scientists could be objective participants in political debate,” says Moore.

She recently finished editing a forthcoming volume of the

New Political Sociology of Science

, which “brings together research on the relationship between science and power in the contemporary U.S.” She is currently investigating urban environmental issues. Especially interested in ecological restoration projects and the uses and meanings of nature, she is examining “ecological restoration in parks, urban gardens, and cemeteries, all of which provide people with relaxation, health, and recreation and which provide them with a sense of the past and its connection to the future.” She is especially interested in the role of community groups in shaping the forms that urban natural spaces take.

Moore will begin teaching winter quarter and is looking forward to interacting with UC students. Her teaching philosophy fits in with the Just Community concept, as does her experience with highly diverse students. She believes, “The classroom brings a way to see our own lives in a broader community that exists in this country and the world, to see capacities for citizenship, and to place value in thinking about our places as world citizens.”

In addition to forging partnerships with colleagues in the university, she looks forward to choosing local social causes with which to become involved: “I have a long life-history of being involved with community groups and social justice groups around environmental and public space issues but have not decided which direction to go.”

While investigating opportunities, Moore enjoys biking around hilly Cincinnati and has also been hiking in places like Hocking Hills. When she is not working on her research or her historic 1888 Victorian home in Prospect Hill, she enjoys checking out the local music scene, especially Appalachian and folk music.

“It’s a big change to move from New York City to Cincinnati, but I am delighted to be in a supportive and cooperative department situated in such an engaged university. I’m glad to be here,” she concludes.