Maria Isabel Espinoza
- Assistant Professor
- Department of Sociology
- PhD Sociology, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, 2023
- Berkey Hall Room 460B
- 509 E. Circle Drive
- East Lansing, MI 48824
- espin145@msu.edu
LINKS
CURRICULUM VITAE
Maria Isabel Espinoza P.BIOGRAPHY
Maria Isabel Espinoza is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University. Her research and teaching areas of expertise are environmental communication, the sociology of climate change, and the climate and health nexus. Her work has been published in Social Science & Medicine, Environmental Sociology, Big Data & Society, and Climatic Change. Her book, A Strategic Nature: Public Relations and the Politics of Environmentalism (Oxford University Press), co-authored with Melissa Aronczyk, has won the National Communication Association’s Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award in the Political Communication division.CURRENT RESEARCH
Dr. Espinoza has researched news media coverage of climate-sensitive diseases such as dengue and cholera in connection to the El Niño Phenomenon and other extreme weather events in Peru. She has also studied how public health experts in Peru understand the connections between environmental conditions, climate change, and infectious diseases and imagine adaptative strategies in the health sector.
One of her current research projects compares how countries in the Andean Region plan to adapt to climate change in the public health sector while navigating tensions between local demands and international organizations' development agendas. Her second project explores how the gender identities and racialized experiences of Latin American migrants in the U.S. shape their understanding of environmental problems and climate change, as well as their views on solutions.
PUBLICATIONS
BookAronczyk, M. and Espinoza, M.I. (2022). A Strategic Nature. Public Relations and The Politics of American Environmentalism. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-strategic-nature-9780190055356.
Journal Articles
Espinoza, M. I. (2021). Conflicting diagnostic and prognostic framing of epidemics? Newspaper representations of dengue as a public health problem. Social Science & Medicine, 289, 114398. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114398
Espinoza, M. I., & Aronczyk, M. (2021). Big data for climate action or climate action for big data? Big Data & Society, 8(1). DOI:10.1177/2053951720982032
Aronczyk, M., & Espinoza, M. I. (2019). Sustainable communication: green PR and the export of corporate environmentalism, 1989–1997. Environmental Sociology, 5(3), 308-322. DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2018.1564455
Espinoza, M. I., & Brechin, S. R. (2017). A case against the Green Climate Fund’s concurrent 50:50 ratio climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. Climatic Change, 142, 311–320. DOI:10.1007/s10584-017-1938-8
Book Chapters
Aronczyk, M., and Espinoza, M.I. (Forthcoming) Climate Change and Public Relations Firms. Routledge Handbook on Climate Change & Society, 2nd Edition.
Manuscripts in Preparation
Espinoza, M.I. Useful unknowns in vector control for submission to ST&HV
Espinoza, M.I. The challenges of the decentralized governance of climate-sensitive infectious disease. The case of dengue in Peru for submission to PUS
Espinoza, M.I. Frustration, conformity, and cynicism about health adaptation among public health experts in Peru.