Shirley B. Laska
Professor
Ph.D. Tulane

slaska@uno.edu

Professor Laska's area of expertise is environmental sociology. She has recently returned to the Department following eight years as a university administrator. She is establishing the Center for Hazards, Assessment, Response and Technology (CHART). Faculty researchers and graduate students affiliated with the Center are conducting applied research on ways in which communities nationally have recovered from disasters-natural and technological. The goal is to identify successful recoveries that have contributed to the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the communities and then to work with disaster-impacted Louisiana communities to improve their recovery processes.

Professor Laska is the past president of the Southern Sociological Society and the SWS-S. She received the 2000 ASA Environment and Technology Section achievement award.