“[W]e need much subtler tools for distinguishing a range of human impacts on natural systems, some negative, some neutral, some positive, all judged by values that cannot help but be anthropogenic even as we strive to make them less anthropocentric.”

Cronon, W. 2000. "Resisting monoliths and tabulae rasae" Ecological Applications 10(3): 673-675

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"We cannot afford to see people as opponents—especially not those who oppose us. The conservation community can't afford to draw lines in the sand. Seeing people as enemies distorts them into something both bigger and smaller than they really are. We must embrace our enemies, look into their eyes long enough to see ourselves. Then we can begin talking. Some people make this easy; others, difficult. Some of those who make it difficult are on our side. The barriers have to go. In a world of hurt and need, what choice is there?" 

Teaching

In addition to core courses in environmental studies, my teaching focuses on the social-ecological dimensions of environmental change, conservation, and management. A key feature of several of the "synthesis courses" I teach is the mix of interdisciplinary literature and project-based, research-oriented, and/or experiential learning assignments.

• ENV 100 - Issues in Environmental Studies (Project focus, Stewardship Component)
• ENV 332 - Globalization and the Environment
• ENV 338 - Forests and People
• ENV 342 - Urbanization and the Environment (Project focus)
• ENV 366 - Ecological Change in Historical Perspective (Project focus, Stewardship Component)
• ENV 382 - Political Ecology
• ENV 458W - Environmental Planning (Capstone, Project focus, Stewardship Component)

Research

My research examines the implications that changes in politics, land-use, and landcover associated with urbanization have for natural resource-based livelihoods (practices), conservation efforts, and environmental governance.  My research draws on diverse theoretical threads within the field of political ecology and relies primarily on a mixture of ethnographic and GIS methods.  Findings have implications for land-use policy and planning, biodiversity conservation practice, and urban forest and greenspace management.

In the past, I have examined the politics of conservation planning in California's Sierra Nevada (Hurley and Walker 2004) as well as the ways that peoples' visions about appropriate land-use shape planning practices in the State of Oregon's much celebrated statewide planning system (Walker and Hurley 2010). I am drawn to case studies where amenity migration shapes both uses of the environment (e.g., Hurley et al. 2008) and the places that are either developed or conserved (e.g., Hurley forthcoming; Hurley and Arı 2011).

Currently, I am working on research that examines the production of conservation landscapes in the Philadelphia exurbs.  In addition, I  am collaborating with a number of scholars to explore:

1. the consequences of urbanization for sweetgrass basket-making communities in the greater Mt. Pleasant area of South Carolina (with Professor Cari Goetcheus of Clemson University and Dr. Angela Halfacre of Furman University);
2. NTFP foraging practices in urbanized and urbanizing environments (with Dr. Marla Emery, USFS, Dr. Rebecca McLain, IFCAE, and several others) [more]; and
3. the role that amenity migrants play in shaping land-use and conservation in the Kaz Dağı (Ida Mountains) region of western Turkey (with Dr. Yılmaz Arı of the University of Balikesir).

Students are active participants in my research. Several students have been actively involved with ongoing  on suburban foraging and NonTimber Forest Product management, including interviews with both foragers and land managers in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area. Students are also actively engaged in my research on exurban Philadelphia, where they participate in oral history and in-depth interviews of long-time residents and local township officials and non-profit representatives.  More recently, I have been working with students to document the historical geography and emergent politics of urban farming in the Haddington area of West Philadelphia. 

Selected Publications [Complete CV]

• McLain, R., M. Poe, P. Hurley, J. Lecompte-Mastenbrook, and M. Emery. Forthcoming. Producing edible landscapes in Seattle's urban forest. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening.
• Hurley, P.T. and Y. Arı. 2011. Mining (Dis)Amenity: The political ecology of mining opposition in the Ida Mountain region of western Turkey. Development and Change. 42(6): #-##.
• B. Grabbatin, P. Hurley, and A. Halfacre. 2011. "I still have the old tradition": The co-production of sweetgrass basketry and coastal development. Geoforum 42: 638-649
• P.A. Walker and P.T. Hurley. 2011. Planning paradise: Politics and visioning of Land Use in Oregon. University of Arizona Press: Tucson, AZ.
• Hurley, P.T. and A. Halfacre. 2009. Dodging alligators, rattlesnakes, and backyard docks: A political ecology of sweetgrass basket-making and conservation in the South Carolina Lowcountry, USA. GeoJournal DOI 10.1007/s10708-009-9276-7
• Cadieux, V. and P. Hurley. 2010. Amenity migration, exurbia, and emerging rural landscapes: global natural amenity as place and as process. GeoJournal DOI 0.1007/s10708-009-9335-0 [Abstract/PDF]
• Hurley, P.T. and E. Carr. 2010. Introduction: Why a Political Ecology of the US South? Southeastern Geographer 50(1) [Abstract/PDF]
• Hurley, P.T., A. Halfacre, N. Levine, and M. Burke. 2008. Finding a “disappearing” non-timber forest resource: Using grounded visualization to explore urbanization impacts on sweetgrass basket-making in greater Mt Pleasant, SC. The Professional Geographer 60(4):1-23  [Abstract/PDF]

Selected Conference Presentations (Including Student Presentations)

• Hurley, P. "Engaging Urban Greening: The role of student-led oral history in assessing the success of Urban Tree Connection in the Haddington neighborhood of West Philadelphia" Annual Meetings of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences, Burlington, VT, June 2011. [Abstract]
• Dombay, M.* and P. Hurley. "Analysis of suburban forest species composition in land-use policies in Montgomery County, PA" Poster at the Annual Meetings of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences, Burlington, VT, June 2011. [Abstract]
• Dzuna, M.* and P. Hurley. "Suburban NTFP gathering in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area" Poster at the Annual Meetings of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences, Burlington, VT, June 2011. [Abstract]
• Poe, M., R. McLain, S. Charnley, P. Hurley, M. Emery, L. Urgenson, and J. Lecompte-Masterbrook. “Seattle Urban Foraging: A Deeply Interactive Nature Practice” Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Seattle, WA, March 2011 [Abstract]
• McLain, R. M. Poe, S. Charnley, J. Lecompted-Masterbrook, L. Urgenson, and P. Hurley. “Social Justice and Sustainability in Seattle’s Urban Forest” Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Seattle, WA, March 2011.
• Brody, L.* and P. Hurley. “Gathering in the Neighborhood: NTFPs in the suburbs of Philadelphia.” Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers in Washington, DC. April, 2010. [Abstract]
• Emery, M., P. Hurley, R. McLain, B. Smith, L. Campbell, and E. Svendsen. “Consuming Nature in New York City: Urban Foraging as Economic and Ecological Practice.” Annual Meetings of the Association of American Geographers in Washington, DC. April, 2010. [Abstract]

       *Student presenter