Johnny Finn (Christopher Newport University), “Mapping Environmental Justice: From Coal Dust to Climate Gentrification in Southeastern Virginia” (Yale Law School)

In this lecture, urban geographer Johnny Finn will put the history of mapping and counter-mapping into conversation with research on environmental justice to interrogate contemporary landscapes of environmental inequality in southeastern Virginia. Open to the Yale community; register here.

 

Dr. Johnny Finn is an Associate Professor of Geography at Christopher Newport University, where he is also Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology. His scholarship brings together literatures on racial capitalism, critical landscape studies, and environmental justice to better understand and theorize the ongoing economic, environmental, and health impacts of persistent racial segregation in the United States, and to advocate for more racially and environmentally just futures. Finn has published over 40 articles, book chapters, reports, and op-eds, has attracted over $200,000 in research grant funding, and has given over 100 invited lectures across North America, Latin America, and Europe.

 

His work was recently displayed in a solo exhibition, entitled “Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century,” at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). In 2024 Finn received the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award, the highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. At Christopher Newport University, Finn teaches courses on human geography, urban geography, human -environment interaction, field research methods, and Latin American studies.