Access, Opportunity, and Excellence Coordinator

Meet the Access, Opportunity, and Excellence Coordinator for the Department of Sociology

Professor Stephen Gasteyer is Access, Opportunity, and Excellence Coordinator and Associate Professor for the Department of Sociology. Dr. Gasteyer is an Associate Professor of Sociology with an appointment in AgBioResearch at Michigan State University. His research focuses on community development and natural resources management.

Since the 1990s his work has touched on the social aspects of community, food, agriculture, and water. This has included research on the functioning of watershed management organizations, source water protection, soil and water conservation, groundwater management, the community aspects of inland lake water quality, and small community water supply and sanitation.

He has worked across spatial contexts including research in the US Great Lakes, the Great Plains, and parts of Africa and the Middle East. Recent research has addressed access to potable water and sanitation in the United States, Tanzania, and Israel/Palestine, environmental justice and emerging contaminants such as PFAS in the United States, and soil and water conservation among underrepresented agricultural producers and service providers. 

Current research

Dr. Gasteyer's current research includes the challenges of access to potable water and sanitation in the United States, Palestine, Tanzania; improving access to and distribution of local food; processes of settler colonialism, resource takings, impacts, and resistance.