Emily Spangenberg

Emily Spangenberg is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology. Her research focuses on environmental inequalities, human rights, and extractive economies. Emily’s dissertation examines the politicization of environmental health risks related to mining activity in Argentina, where she recently conducted two years of ethnographic research in neighborhoods near mineral processing plants. Emily also works with the Human Rights Clinic’s advocacy campaign in Abra Pampa, Argentina, a project that monitors health and indigenous rights in the implementation of an internationally-funded remediation program to address lead contamination. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, and the Urban Ethnography Lab at UT. In Austin, she volunteers with the Workers Defense Project and the Sustainable Food Center. Emily completed an MA in Latin American Studies at UT and a BA in Journalism, Political Science, and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.