Karen McCurdy

Dr. Karen M. McCurdy
Assistant Professor

Professor McCurdy is currently engaged in a cross-disciplinary research project with Congress and Geology.  This project reflects a long standing interest for her in mining policy and federal lands policy that has suddenly become relevant again in the national and global discussion about resource exploitation.  A course in Energy Policy was successfully piloted in 2011.

Research and Teaching Interests:  non-renewable resource policy, energy policy, legislative decision making, music and politics.

Recent Presentations and Publications: 

“Natural Resources, Extractive Industries, and Government: Doomed to an Endless Public Policy Loop?”  Poster presentation at the initial American Geophysical Union Science Policy Conference to be held April 30 – May 3, 2012 in Washington D.C.

“Inside and Outside the Policy Consensus: Science in a Time of Policy Upheaval in Congress”, Abstract PA14A-01, Video-on-Demand presentation at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, California, December 5-9, 2011.  [link: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2011/scientific-program/sessions-on-demand-5-december/]

“Spanning the Geoscience-Government Divide: The Importance of Congressional Time” (2011) Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs (Vol. 43, no. 5, p 643).

“The Policy Setting for Coal Fires: Indicators for Government Action” (2010) in Glenn Stracher, Anupma Prakesh and Ellina V. Sokol [eds], Coal and Peat Fires: A Global Perspective, Volume 1: Coal – Geology and Combustion, Elsevier Press, Vol. I, Chapter 15, pp 257-265.

“Congressional response to coal fires: Illustrating transitions in the policy process,” (2007) in Glenn B. Stracher [ed.] Geology of Coal Fires: Case Studies from Around the World, Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology, v. XVIII, p 271-278.

Last updated: 12/19/2023