Kim Fortun
Kim Fortun is associate dean for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and an associate professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer. Her research examines the dynamics of the environmental field in different historical and geographic contexts. Fortun's current research focuses on the development of information technology and culture in the environmental field. Through studies of databases, digital maps, computer models and other information processing capabilities in the environmental field, Fortun aims to create new understanding of how environmental politics take shape, and synchronize with broad cultural, technological and political-economic trends. This research extends the findings of Fortun's first book, Advocacy After Bhopal (University of Chicago, 2001), which examines how the 1984 Bhopal disaster changed the way environmentalism is understood and carried out in a variety of contexts around the world. Moving from hospitals and courtrooms in India to meetings with engineers, lawyers, and environmental justice activists in the U.S., the book maps how global environmentalism took shape in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By drawing out different ways the Bhopal disaster was accounted for, the book illustrates the cultural and ideological diversity of the environmental field and how diverse constructions of history are built into law, policy, bureaucratic initiative, and commercial endeavor.
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