I am an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, where I have been since receiving my PhD from the University of California-Berkeley in 2013. The common theme of my research is using ethnographic methods to advance our theories of large political economic forces, whether climate change, energy transition or large-scale land grabbing.
My current research is focused on developing a comparative sociology of energy transition. I am particularly interested in the challenge of decarbonizing fossil-fuel producing regions of the United States. To this end, I have done ethnographic and interview-based fieldwork in West Virginia and Louisiana. My current book project examines the social consequences of carbon capture and storage (CCS), a controversial approach to climate mitigation that is moving ahead rapidly since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The book is based on one year of ethnographic research in Louisiana—the epicenter of the CCS boom—focused on communities slated for CCS injection wells, pipelines and “clean fuels” plants. I have also been studying the political economy of offshore wind development in the Gulf of Mexico.
For fifteen years my research focused on land dispossession in India. This work sought to advance a comparative sociology of dispossession, a social relation that was largely neglected by sociology. This research culminated in my book Dispossession without Development (2018), which won multiple book awards from the American Sociological Association and the International Studies Association. I have also undertaken research on broader themes of agrarian transformations in the Global South and on the global politics of neoliberalism.
Michael Levien 