Shannon Elizabeth Bell

Shannon Elizabeth Bell is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology at Virginia Tech's College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She is an environmental sociologist and Appalachian studies scholar whose research and teaching focus on just energy transitions, the socio-ecological impacts of fossil fuel extraction and transport, and forest-based traditions and lifeways in Central Appalachia.

Research Focus:

• Forest farming and wild harvesting traditions and economies in Central Appalachia
• Social ecology of native at-risk forest understory herbs
• Inequities in the wild-harvested herbal supply chain
• Feminist energy systems and just transitions
• Environmental and climate justice movements

Professor Bell has conducted extensive ethnographic research in Central Appalachian communities, including an 8-month Photovoice project with women in coal-mining communities in Southern West Virginia. Her work combines community-based participatory methods with scholarly analysis to address environmental justice issues affecting rural communities.

Scientific Recognition:

• Author of two award-winning books
• Multiple awards from national and international professional societies
• Significant media coverage of her research

Professor Bell currently leads innovative projects including the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument, which celebrates the historical and present-day relationships that diverse Appalachian peoples maintain with medicinal herbs and wild foods of the forest understory, while documenting and addressing inequities in the wild-harvested herbal supply chain.