Samantha MacBride
Samantha MacBride’s interests lie at the intersection of public works governance, environmental policy and politics, and materials science/studies, with a broad focus on industrial and municipal solid wastes. She holds an M.P.A. in Environmental Policy and Planning and a Ph.D. in Sociology from New York University, and served as Deputy Director for Recycling at the New York City Department of Sanitation for over a decade prior to coming to Baruch. Her 2011 book, Recycling Reconsidered: the Present Failure and Future Promise of Environmental Action in the United States (MIT Press) is a critical but supportive examination of the history of the U.S. recycling movement and its relation to manufacturing interests over the 20th century. She has taught previously at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, New York University’s Metropolitan Studies Program, and Brooklyn College’s Department of Sociology.
At Baruch, Samantha will be teaching courses on public management, program evaluation, urban politics, and environmental issues. Her current project concerns material relations of power among social movements, producers, waste management firms, and the state around the issue of waste to energy, looking specifically at new conversion technologies (gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion). She will also continue her ongoing research on coal combustion waste management, textile reuse and recycling, and custodial labor in green buildings. Samantha enjoys working with students and welcomes collaboration with scholars at any career stage who share her interest in materials and waste.
