Dr. Dean Hardy received his Ph.D. in Integrative Conservation and Geography from the University of Georgia in 2016. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Maryland’s NSF-funded National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center from 2016-2019. He received his M.S. in Ecology in 2009 and three B.S. degrees in Marine Sciences, Biology, and Ecology with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Georgia in 2003. He has been at USC since 2019 and is jointly appointed in the School of the Earth, Ocean & Environment and the Department of Geography.

The core of Dr. Hardy’s research examines how climate change exacerbates issues of environmental justice with a special focus on how these issues relate to increased coastal flooding under rising seas. Broadly, his research spans from assessing private conservation strategies to examining processes that produce social inequities and vulnerability from local to global scales. His research employs mixed methods including spatial analyses, interviews, and participant observation. Dr. Hardy is an Affiliated Investigator with the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research Program funded by NSF. And, as part of conducting anti-racist and community-based social science research, he is an Advisory Board member to the UGA Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture, an organization that seeks “to address important questions on the history, present status, and future of agriculture, property politics, and related issues” in a predominantly African American sea island community in coastal Georgia.