Robin McDowell’s research explores historical dimensions of environmental racism and visions for environmental justice for Black communities. Through narratives of south Louisiana wetlands, sugar plantations, oil fields, and salt mines, her work demonstrates how racial, environmental, and economic encounters in these spaces created conditions of Black life that shaped and continue to shape the very foundations of North America.

Robin McDowell
Assistant Professor of African & African American Studies
Ph.D., Harvard University
research interests:
- Her interdisciplinary research methodology draws on archives, oral histories, earth sciences, design, multimedia art making, and experiences from years of grassroots community organizing in the Greater New Orleans area.
contact info:
- Email: r.mcdowell@wustl.edu
- Office: McMillan Hall 233A
mailing address:
- Washington University in St. Louis
- One Brookings Drive
- Campus Box 1109-0137-02
- St. Louis, MO 63130
