Activists call it the ‘Thin Green Line.’ As Asian economic growth has increased that region’s demand for North American fossil fuel exports – and as unconventional extraction methods have enabled U.S. and Canadian firms to meet this demand with increased supply – corporations have increasingly turned to the Pacific Northwest in their efforts to process and export petrochemicals. If constructed, the region's proposed energy infrastructure would release 822 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, which approximates the CO2 output of five Keystone XL pipelines. As a result, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia have become pivotal fronts in the war against climate change and environmental racism. The Thin Green Line denotes these centers of unconventional energy development, which must avoid further polluting infrastructure if humanity is to avert climatological disaster.

My research explores the various corporate, state, and social movement actors who participate in the Thin Green Line's contentious politics. In the context of my dissertation, this analytical project has entailed a case study of Tacoma LNG, which is a natural gas refinery that was recently constructed in Tacoma, Washington. When Tacoma LNG is finally operational, it will receive natural gas through the region's pipeline infrastructure; will cool this gas until it becomes a condensed liquid; and will store the resulting liquefied natural gas (LNG) for distribution as a residential heat source or maritime shipping fuel. A private utility company named Puget Sound Energy (PSE) started building this refinery in 2016 despite lacking the necessary permits. Following a defective environmental review process that systematically dismissed public concerns, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency granted Tacoma LNG its final air quality permit in December 2019. By this time, PSE had nearly completed its facility, which is scheduled to begin its operational life in the near future.

Tacoma LNG raises environmental justice concerns given its many fire and pollution hazards, which would disproportionately threaten inmates of a nearby ICE detention center and residents of a local African-American community. PSE also sited Tacoma LNG on the reservation grounds of the Puyallup Indian Tribe, thereby violating the Tribe’s political sovereignty and its treaty-protected fishing rights. As a result of these injustices, young Puyallup activists spearheaded a racially and economically diverse movement to oppose Tacoma LNGs construction. This movement comprised not only Native activists, but also Black racial justice activists; Hispanic immigrants’ rights activists; as well as white and middle-class climate justice activists. Tacoma’s anti-LNG movement was remarkable in its capacity to create broad alliances. Despite this, activists ultimately failed in their goal of halting Tacoma LNG's construction. My dissertation asked – why, despite its many hazards, was Tacoma LNG finally permitted and rendered operational? What structural and agentic variables upheld PSE's agenda despite the vibrancy of Tacoma's anti-LNG movement? I addressed this question by holding open-ended interviews with local activists; by conducting participant observations in the context of Tacoma’s environmentalist community; and by examining archived public hearings and city council meetings.

My dissertation research contributed to existing scholarship both empirically and theoretically. Empirically, it clarified geographies and technologies that often go overlooked in the environmental racism literature. While many scholars have studied the consequences of hydraulic fracturing in Eastern states like Pennsylvania, only a minority have assessed struggles over unconventional energy development in the Pacific Northwest. Of these, even fewer have examined Indigenous-led opposition to the region’s LNG infrastructure. Theoretically, my dissertation addressed recent scholarship that problematizes the capitalist state and its tendency to perpetuate environmental racism. In particular, I placed this body of work in conversation with Marxist theorists like Antonio Gramsci and Nicos Poulantzas, who argued that capitalist states function to secure capital’s ideological hegemony. The municipal governments and regulatory agencies implicated in Tacoma LNG's permitting process constitute state institutions. As such, I contend that Marxist theories can reveal how such institutions perpetuate fossil fuel capital’s ideological supremacy by downplaying the hazards of unconventional energy infrastructure, thereby identifying corporate interests with the public good.

I have composed my dissertation in the form of four articles. The first uses Marxist state theory to critique the biases of Tacoma LNG’s environmental impact assessment, which systematically excluded racially marginalized groups that possessed an interest in challenging the facility’s approval. In particular, I contend that existing policies and regulatory discourses enabled Tacoma’s permitting officials – many of them funded by Puget Sound Energy – to overlook Tacoma LNG's risks. These structural mechanisms upheld the hegemony of fossil fuel capital by eliding contradictions between Puget Sound Energy’s interests and those of the broader public. This article has been accepted by the journal Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. In my second article, I examine the collective action frames that Tacoma LNG’s supporters deployed as a means of countering popular resistance. Rather than opposing the framing strategies of Tacoma's anti-LNG movement, local elites instead co-opted activists' discourses of racial, climate, and environmental justice in order to establish the refinery's legitimacy. Such a strategy was highly effective given the progressive social and environmental values that characterize Tacoma. I have submitted this article to Interface.

My third article investigates the strategies that corporate actors used when trying to generate policy coherence among the many institutional scales responsible for Tacoma LNG’s permitting process. Although regulatory institutions at the local, regional, and national scales each had distinct and often contradictory agendas, Puget Sound Energy and its allies were able to unify these institutions around a series of regulatory decisions that secured Tacoma LNG its requisite permits. I will submit this article to Antipode by February 2024. In my fourth article, I use social movement framing theory to analyze the discursive strategies of Tacoma’s anti-LNG movement. In particular, I argue that activists unified their diverse coalition by deploying a shared set of anti-corporate discourses. These discourses attributed Tacoma LNG's many injustices to the joint class interests of fossil fuel capital. By emphasizing a common structural cause for their diverse grievances, activists' framing strategies helped them to overcome many of the class and racial divides that have traditionally beset movements for environmental justice. I will submit this article to Social Movement Studies by April 2024.

I will expand my graduate research into a book that explores the Thin Green Line's contentious politics regarding unconventional energy development. Part of this project will involve a case study of the Partnership for Energy Progress. Based in Seattle, the Partnership is a coalition of energy corporations that defend Washington's gas industry from political challenges. Recently, the Partnership overturned a key pillar of Seattle's Green New Deal, which would have banned gas hookups in future buildings constructed within city limits. The Partnership accomplished this task through a public relations campaign that advertised the social and environmental benefits of natural gas to the city’s white, liberal, middle-class voters. My research on the Partnership will ask: how do energy corporations mobilize discourses of racial, climate, and environmental justice in order to defend urban energy infrastructure? And how has the city's activist community attempted to counter such discourses by associating natural gas capital with climate change and environmental racism? To address this question, I will conduct open-ended interviews that leverage my existing contacts in Seattle. I will also use discourse analysis to critique the content of local newspaper articles, public forums, and city council meetings. I plan on funding this research with the Stronger Democracy Award; with a Bullitt Foundation grant; as well as with financial support from the Center for Political Ecology and the Global Center for Climate Justice.

Published

• Falzon, Danielle, Samuel Maron, Robert Wengronowitz, Alex Press, Benjamin Levy, and Jeffrey Juris. (December, 2018). “To Change Everything, It Takes Everyone: Recursivity in the People’s Climate March.” Interface 10 (1-2): 92-116.

• Faber, Daniel, Benjamin Levy, and Christina Schlegel. (October, 2021). “Not all People are Polluted Equally in Capitalist Society: An Eco-Socialist Commentary on Liberal Environmental Justice Theory.” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 32 (4): 1-16.

Accepted for Publication

• Levy, Benjamin. “”The Soil Is Corrupt and So Are the Politicians”: A Marxist Critique of Tacoma LNG’s Environmental Impact Assessment.” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism.

Under Review

• Levy, Benjamin. “Petro-Capitalist Hegemony and the Liberal Environmental Justice Frame: How Elites in Tacoma, Washington Co-Opted Activists’ Discourses When Promoting a Natural Gas Refinery.” Interface.

• Gilligan, Christopher, Joshua Hirsch, Benjamin Levy, Mike Zalis, Mike Ferrick, Aiden Feng, and Mark Davis. “Novel Strategies for Value Creation by Academic Medical Centers.” Health Services Management Research.

In Preparation

• Levy, Benjamin. “Theorizing the Spatial Basis of Petro-Capitalist Hegemony: A Multi-Scalar Account of Tacoma LNG’s Environmental Impact Assessment.” Antipode.

• Levy, Benjamin. “”Your Thirst for Profit Brings Us Together": How a Multiracial Coalition of Environmental Activists Used Anti-Corporate Frames to Unify Their Movement against Natural Gas Capital.” Social Movement Studies.

• Levy, Benjamin. “A Marxist Contribution to Environmental Justice Theory: Confronting the Idealism of Mainstream EJ Scholarship.” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism.

• Levy, Benjamin. “Deconstructing the Hegemonic Discourses of Natural Gas Capital: A Discourse-Analytic Critique of the Public Relations Campaign for Tacoma LNG.” Journal of Political Ecology.

During my past thirteen years as a course instructor, I have devoted myself to critical and anti-oppressive pedagogies that promote student engagement. To this end, I have drawn on the work of educational theorists like Paulo Freire and bell hooks, who argued that teachers should promote critical learning environments where students apply academic concepts to their everyday lives. Both Freire and hooks acknowledged the difficulties associated with such pedagogies, which require students to overcome many of the anxieties that have traditionally foreclosed classroom participation. Indeed, when students participate in class, they often place themselves in positions of severe vulnerability. They might fear judgment by their peers, or they might think their opinions hold little value. For this reason, hooks argued that critical pedagogies require an educational environment where teachers and students recognize each other as creative subjects whose voices possess innate value. For this reason, my teaching has entailed a constant effort to recognize students' diverse experiences and to demonstrate how these experiences are sociologically relevant.

Historically, I have used a variety of pedagogical tools to facilitate my students’ practical use of academic concepts. For instance, I frequently split my classes up into small discussion groups that comprise between 5-6 students. Often, I ask these groups to physically embody course concepts. This was the case during my first teaching assignment – a course entitled Class, Power & Social Change – where I asked students to perform skits that exemplified the weekly topic of patriarchy. Students used these skits as opportunities to perform such everyday social processes as ‘mansplaining’ and ‘manspreading.’ Each group performed their skits in front of the class, which then analyzed the performances in order to identify common expressions of hegemonic masculinity. I further realize my pedagogical goals by amplifying subaltern voices in my syllabi. In doing so, I teach ‘dead white men’ like Marx and Weber with an eye to how these authors have been critiqued by later feminist and anti-racist theorists. Thus, in my course Cultural Constructions of Identity, I taught Marxist epistemology in conjunction with feminist standpoint theories. Such theories extend Marx’s emphasis on a working-class standpoint by exploring the distinct epistemic standpoints of women. My course then challenged both Marxist and feminist standpoint theories by discussing the intersectional scholarship of Patricia Hill Collins, which complicates the notion of a universal standpoint predicated on either class or gender. By foregrounding subaltern critiques of academic theory, my syllabi enable students from historically marginalized groups to discover the relevance that class material holds in relation to their personal experiences, which often depart from the white, male, settler-colonial perspectives that dominate much sociological scholarship.

As a community-engaged ethnographer, I also foster social criticism by granting students the chance to apply social-scientific methods to their everyday lives. This strategy was evident in my course Ethnographic Field Experience, which culminated in a semester-long ethnographic project that required students to interrogate their personal experiences of inequality through interviews and independent fieldwork. The resulting ethnographies investigated such topics as the gentrification of Boston’s neighborhoods, the patriarchal gatekeeping affiliated with football culture, and the ways in which racialized social norms inhibit Black participation in musical theater. Nor has my use of critical pedagogy been limited to smaller, upper-level coursework. Indeed, I have also emphasized the practical implications of academic theory in larger, introductory courses like Global Markets & Local Culture. This fifty-student course asked students to interview their friends and relatives with the goal of demonstrating how processes like structural adjustment, neoliberal development, and global financial crises have shaped their family histories. By using such pedagogical tools, I aim to convince students that their personal experiences hold sociological relevance while possessing a powerful ability to inform social change.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Northeastern University              

Instructor of Record               

SOCL 4522: Environmental Justice (Summer, 2023; Summer, 2024)

SOCL 1101: Introduction to Sociology (Spring, 2023; Fall, 2023; Spring, 2024; Summer, 2024)

SOCL 1246: Environment & Society (Summer, 2022; Fall, 2024)

ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Summer, 2020; Spring, 2022; Fall, 2022; Spring, 2024)

ANTH 3410: Ethnographic Field Experience (Fall, 2021)

SOCL 2268: Social Movements (Fall, 2019)

SOCL 2450: Class, Power, & Social Change (Spring, 2019)

Emerson College

Instructor of Record

IN 152: Cultural Constructions of Identity (Fall, 2022; Fall, 2023; Spring, 2024)

Northeastern University              

Teaching Assistant      

ABRD 5113: International Study – Power, Society & Environment in Rome (Summer, 2019; Summer, 2022; Summer, 2023)

SOCL 4528: Computers & Society (Fall, 2018)

ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Spring, 2018)

SOCL 1101: Introduction to Sociology (Fall, 2016; Spring, 2017; Fall, 2020)

SOCL 1246: Environment & Society (Spring, 2016; Fall, 2017; Spring, 2021)

INTL 1101: Globalization & International Affairs (Fall, 2015)

ANTH 4500: Latin American Society & Development (Spring, 2015)

ANTH 2302: Gender & Sexuality (Fall, 2014)

Tufts University                       Teaching Assistant

SOCL 0103: Sociological Theory (Spring, 2020)

SOCL 0050: Globalization & Social Change (Spring, 2020)  

Simon Fraser University

Teaching Assistant                       SA 255: Social Research (Summer, 2013)

SA 337: Sexuality & Society (Fall, 2012)

SA 150: Introduction to Sociology (Spring, 2012; Spring, 2013)

SA 302: Global Problems & the Culture of Capitalism (Fall, 2011)

TEACHING AWARDS

Department of Sociology & Anthropology Teaching Award       Received 05/2021

IN 152: Cultural Constructions of Identity (Fall, 2023):

• “I loved this class. I thought it was fast-paced and interesting, and Professor Levy's knowledge on every topic was so refreshing. He truly enjoys teaching and I enjoyed learning from him. The readings were interesting, and I learned a lot through the in-class conversations.”

• “The lectures were not only clear, but engaging. Ben is so knowledgeable and respectful, coming to class was truly a joy. I learned so much every class and the discussions and lectures were the primary contributors to that.”

• “This course taught me a lot about power and privilege and helped shape my critical outlook on society.”

• “I never expected that these influential people like Marx or Firestone would have such an impact on how society functioned and the applications they had on our individual levels. I really loved learning about these people and it helped me connect more to my own life, as well as the life of others.”

• “I loved the little documentaries and youtube videos we would watch in class! I'm more of a visual learner so it definitely helped me understand a lot of the concepts better. [I also enjoyed the] constant conversations for clarification or just discussion.”

• “I found that the many group/class discussions were very helpful and made me understand the readings more and I found that the lectures, documentaries, and YouTube videos were very helpful when introducing new material!”

• “I really enjoyed the small group discussions. Over the course of the semester, I developed a rapport within my small discussion group that made discussing the class topics easy, beneficial, and enjoyable.”

• “[I really enjoyed] the course material itself. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about the content we covered before this class and it was super enlightening and helpful for my experiences to come!”

• “I enjoyed the many multimedia aspects of the course such as the documentaries that we used to supplement our learning.”

• “I think the course material is something that is really important to discuss, and I liked a lot of the books we read and documentaries we watched.”

• “I found the class discussions helpful in reinforcing content.”

• “[I enjoyed] the discussion questions and the freedom in the assignments.”

• “[The course was] very informative on historical events and concepts.”

• “I found the small group and class discussions to be engaging and educational. I found many of the videos and documentaries to be helpful in expanding to class topics.”

SOCL 1101: Introduction to Sociology (Fall, 2023)

• “As this class was an asynchronous online class, the professor organized the canvas page to help students navigate it every week. Discussion boards with classmates, posted lectures, and the ability to ask questions in a discussion post aided in connecting everyone.”

• “The instructor answered emails quickly and efficiently with students which is important regarding the online structure of the class.”

• “He was very much available for the course,he was also very knowledgeable about the content and showed enthusiasm for it.”

• “I enjoyed watching some of the youtube videos provided and think the professor gave a good mix of media for students to stay interested even in an online setting.”

• “It is very clear that he was very passionate about the content that he is teaching, and he is also very flexible about assignments, and how to approach them.”

SOCL 4522: Environmental Justice (Summer, 2023)

• Dr. Levy went above and beyond to make this an engaging course despite its online modality. He was always available to meet with me, provided feedback in less than 24 hours, and supported me in my academic pursuits outside of the course. Excellent instructor overall!

• The knowledge that Professor Levy holds is immense and it is evident through the lecture videos where the intricate/nuanced concepts are explained in great detail with simplicity. The amount of content and reading is intense in this course, but it provides students with academic references for where the information is coming from.

• This class was really great! The topic is so interesting and the professor is very knowledgeable about the topic and was really great at lecturing.

• The course provided a very valuable sociological perspective that complemented the other environmental social science knowledge I have gained at Northeastern.

• The professor was really enthusiastic about the class and really helpful with guidance for the research paper. He was also very understanding of extensions.

• The course translated very well online and the organization of the Canvas webpage made it very easy to keep up with the material.

SOCL 1101: Introduction to Sociology (Spring, 2023):

• “Professor Levy was amazing. One of the smartest people I know. He was very accommodating, very knowledgeable, and very passionate. He wants everyone to succeed and is a bright light in this world.”

• “Professor Levy taught this class very well. He is really passionate about the topic, which led to some really great in class discussions. He also creates an environment where everyone feels included and their ideas can be heard. Professor Levy is also really good at prompting questions and ideas, which can lead to great research papers.”

• “Professor Levy is a kind and engaging professor who was clearly passionate about the course. His classes were very engaging as they included almost daily group discussions.”

• “Ben was very passionate about the topic and everything he taught. He was also very respectful and welcoming of everyone in his classes. He was very approachable and easy to meet with for extra help outside of class.”

• “He was very good at speaking and allowing everyone to understand topics that were confusing and hard. He was always fast to answer emails, and made every student feel as if they could talk and express their own beliefs with no hate/shame.”

• “Professor Levy was amazing. He is clearly passionate about sociology and is always willing to help with essays or just chat about sociology in general.”

• “Very enthusiastic about the course, always willing to help/give feedback, very knowledgeable, very approachable.”

• “Showed enthusiasm for the course topics, taught with passion every day.”

• “Simply amazing.”

• “Pushed students in a constructive way.”

• “Prof. Levy was very passionate about the material and always tried to make lectures as engaging as possible.”

• “It was clear that he knew a lot about the topic and was excited to come to class every day and talk about it.”

• “The professor was very effective at explaining the concepts and connecting them to examples.”

• “Professor Levy is an engaging professor who was easily accessible outside of class and provided great paper feedback. He is also a fair grader.”

• “Professor Levy is a very passionate teacher. He always showed up to class on time and was always willing to read rough drafts of assignments, or answer any questions.”

• “The instructor was enthusiastic and knew a lot about sociology.”

• “Very encouraging, punctual, available to help, accommodating, motivating, extremely enthusiastic.”

• “Professor Levy is good at explaining course concepts.”

• “Very great, used class time wisely, and explained everything very thoroughly, very flexible and personable. He was great.”

• “Very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He definitely knew what he was talking about.”

• “Great professor and person. He should get a tenured position at Northeastern.”

ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Fall, 2022):

• “Ben is now one of my top 3 professors at Northeastern out of my entire 5 years at Northeastern. I believe all business students should take this course. He was engaging, friendly, funny, extremely smart, and just passionate about teaching.”

• “Benjamin has been one of the best professors I have had at Northeastern. He is very passionate about his teachings and makes everything interesting and fun. I learned a lot during this course.”

• “Professor Levy is extremely intelligent and it is clear he is passionate about the course material. He is an excellent communicator and facilitated discussions wonderfully. The class was a good balance of discussions, writing, reading, and watching videos/documentaries to supplement course material. I felt that professor Levy was truly there to support his students and it was very easy to reach out to him for help. Overall, I very much enjoyed his teaching style and the flexibility the class offered.”

• “Ben Levy is such an excellent professor. He is enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He makes all the course concepts come alive through the structure of the course. His lectures are concise, interesting, and clear, he leaves ample time and room for reflection and discussion, and he uses a great combination of readings and other media. He is also incredibly friendly and communicative, facilitating a safe, inclusive, and exciting learning environment.”

• “I absolutely loved this course. This is my final semester at Northeastern and I'm so grateful I was able to take a class with Ben. He's an incredible professor. I always looked forward to attending his class.”

• “Ben has a facility to bring up good vibes and spirit into a class that otherwise can be fairly... null. Content, and analysis were great!”

• “Professor Levy is great! He is very understanding and values everyone understanding the material. Classroom discussions were always great”

• “He was very good at facilitating discussion, fostered a positive learning environment and made it clear that he was very willing to help us succeed however he could.”

• “Uncomparable enthusiasm for the course material.”

• “This was one of the best courses I've taken at NU.”

• “The professor was very kind and kept lectures engaging. He would also be helpful with providing advice and building ideas off of students comments”

• “The lectures were always very engaging and thought-provoking. With the class being big in discussion it was a great way to understand ideas as one is forced to be critical of their thoughts as well as others’.”

• “Great listener and also very understanding on late work”

• “The instructor was very dynamic and engaged students actively in class discussions. There was a good mix of lecture and discussion.”

• “The instructor was usually prepared and created a very relaxed environment. There was a lot of class discussion, which helped me better understand the material and share ideas with other students.”

• “Very understanding. Respectful. Great communicator.”

• “The instructor was very inclusive and allowed students to participate for the majority of discussion without lecturing too much. The use of films, readings, lectures, and class discussions were very helpful and helped me learn a lot.”

• “He created a great classroom environment, easy to talk to, and the coursework wasn't too difficult.”

• “Northeastern needs to keep Ben as a professor and never lose him.”

• “The canvas was very well organized, all materials were accessible and there was no confusion on due dates.”

• “The assignments were all organized and it was easy to reach the professor if you had any confusion or questions.”

IN 152: Cultural Constructions of Identity (Fall, 2022):

• “I learned so much about identity as a whole and I strongly believe my mindset has been broadened, and my assumptions have been dismantled. Professor Levy is a fantastic teacher and he made the class so interesting and engaging. I most appreciated the in-depth discussions of what we take for granted in our world that comes from deep set oppression.”

• ”I heavily appreciated the level of organization in this course. My favorite aspect, however, was the in-class discussions. I felt like the open discussions allowed some of the harder concepts to be broken down well. In terms of projects, I highly appreciate the flexibility of the course and Benjamin. The incorporation of personalization and creativity into final projects/presentations was something that I love about this course. I wish that more teachers were willing to incorporate more creativity instead of pure-academia. Lastly, I really liked Benjamin's consistent enthusiasm and attitude towards what we were learning. I appreciated all the effort put into teaching this course and day-to-day energy.”

• “I really loved the structure and breadth of the course. We covered so much interesting content and did so in a very deep, engaging way. I felt that Professor Levy worked hard to make sure students were engaged by involving documentaries, readings, creative projects, group discussion and more!

• “I think that this course should be better advertised because I believe that every Emerson student should take this class.”

• “[The course taught me] better ways to think about privilege and other social factors.”

• ”[I appreciated] the class environment and ability to share opinions in a safe space.”

• [I appreciated the course’s] inclusive, non-judgemental environment & how intelligent Prof. Levy is!”

• “I found Professor Levy's immense knowledge very useful because he was prepared for every question he knew, and if he didn’t he’d research it. He also has multimedia intertwined within the class.”

• “I really enjoyed partaking in discussions about the readings where we were able to listen to different points of views we hadn't thought about before. It proved to me the diversity of ways of thinking that are present at Emerson College.”

• “I loved our in-class discussions, and the documentaries we watched. I was able to understand any confusion I had with the texts via our in-class discussions and I really enjoyed that.”

• “[The course] was extremely eye-opening, and we had very productive and safe conversations that taught me a lot.”

• “[The course] gave me a better understanding of the experiences of people that have a different background and identity than my own.”

• “I found the discussion-based environment to be really helpful and engaging with the course material. I think it did a great job of testing all of our knowledge on what we were studying and also putting us in a position where we had to apply our knowledge to real world conversations.”

• ”A lot of the discussions and explanations were really in-depth and really engaging and fun as well as deeply educational. The readings that were chosen for each class were also very educational.”

• “The seminar-style of the class and the every day open discussion was by far the most beneficial [part of the course]. A class that covers the content like this one needs to have open discussion, so that students can actively learn from each other, as opposed to learning by solely a textbook or lecture. The in-class discussions were very helpful towards understanding the course content, and it feels like I got a lot out of taking this course because of this.”

• “I enjoyed how engaging Ben Levy was because it supported my interest in the course materials.”

• “I feel like a better educated individual in terms of social constructs which I feel is important to become a knowledgeable individual.”

SOCL 1246: Environment and Society (Summer, 2022):

• “Prof. Levy is a great lecturer/discussion leader, and the course readings were helpful/interesting.”

• “He is an awesome teacher and does a great job teaching and grading.”

• “Very helpful office hour!” 

• “Canvas page was well organized and helpful--due dates were consistently very clear.”

• “Great!”

ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Spring, 2022):

• "Definitely my favorite professor so far in college! Made sure all the material was engaging and included the whole class in discussions, made sure students felt heard and their opinions were valued."

• "Prof. Levy is one of the best professors I've had at northeastern. He is fair and extremely flexible and wants the best for his students. I would 100% take another class of his."

• "Prof. Levy cares about his students and that comes through in all elements of his class. Specific strength was being more understanding during the pandemic by providing a bit of flexibility in deadlines without making students feel like they were a burden for asking."

• "Super understanding and engaging!"

• "He was really knowledgeable. Lectures were very informative and engaging. He was a great professor to learn from. Going over the content in class the way we did was super helpful."

• "Professor Levy is so knowledgeable, and seems to genuinely enjoy teaching; there's a good amount of material, but it's broken down in each lecture and I always felt like I left class with a concrete understanding of what we were studying. Class discussions were well facilitated and engaging. We watched a lot of great documentaries!"

• "The readings were really interesting and his discussion questions and slides were very informative about big ideas. This class definitely opened my mind to anthropology and big picture patterns about how the world works that I think everyone should learn!"

• "Very good speaker, clear with ideas and always open to hear what people have to say."

• "Class discussion really helped with understanding!"

• "Professor Levy is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about his field and subject, and was very flexible and understanding with due dates and assignments."

• "The instructor has been very respectful and open to students' thoughts. Besides, he pays attention to the engagement of students and openness of ideas."

• "Professor Levy was definitely very enthusiastic about the course, and was very available to students outside of class time."

• "This course was very informative and the professor did a good job of conveying the points of each reading across."

ANTH 3410: Ethnographic Field Experience (Fall, 2021):

• "Ben was one of my favorite teachers this semester. He created an inclusive learning environment and was extremely aware of the difficult situations this semester provided. It was evident that he really cared about the students and their success."

• "He is very inclusive, excited, and engaging. Does all he can to make students with various experiences get something meaningful out of the course and be able to contribute well."

• "Attentive to students, willing to listen to them and hear them out beyond academic concerns."

• "This was a great class!"

ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Summer, 2020): 

• "I can’t believe how fast time has flown past June. I was thinking that the Summer II semester was going to take forever, and was excited to get it over with, but that ended up not being the case. Thank you so much for this semester! It honestly is extremely rare for me to email professors after classes are finished. I really enjoyed the class, and learned a lot from all the readings and videos we watched, and all the in class discussions we had. At the beginning of the class, I was initially scared of all the material that we would cover, since it was all pretty foreign to me. But, I was really happy, and came to class excited to learn more, with all the material we covered and how digestible the readings and topics were. I just wanted to acknowledge all the hard work that you put into this semester and to make this learning process happen. This course was extremely eye-opening to me, and it was really interesting to learn about all the different impacts globalization and neoliberalism had on different cultures and communities around the world. This was one of my favorite classes so far in my college experience, and I’m really happy that I took it this summer." (Personal Correspondence)

• "Coming at you a week after class ended! Just wanted to say thank you for a great class – I picked this course a bit on a whim because I was signing up a day late, but honestly I think it ended up being my favorite class I’ve taken at Northeastern to date. I thought the material was really interesting, and it was cool to look at some of the institutions that I study in my business classes from an anthropological perspective. I also liked how small the class was! I know that was because some people were asynchronous because of time zones, but I liked the little community feel it built. Overall, 10/10! I’ll recommend it to any friends that might be looking for a class outside of their major." (Personal Correspondence)

• Ben is a really great teacher! This was a very fun class even though it was online ."

• "Professor Levy was really knowledgeable about the topics of globalization and the ethnographic study of the impacts of globalization on different cultures. The insight he provided in in-class discussions were really thought-provoking and I learned a lot from the class discussions. He respected all of his students and he inspired me to learn a lot this semester about globalization."

• "Prof Levy is a great prof who cares about the students and the material. Grades fairly and makes sure students have the correct tools to succeed."

• "The required books for the semester were really interesting and provided really informative discussions about the topic that was being presented."

• "Great course that covers a variety of information. Great use of examples to illustrate points."

SOCL 2268: Social Movements (Fall, 2019):

• "Professor Levy is extremely personable and always ends every class asking if anyone would like to speak about material, upcoming presentations or assignments. His knowledge of the subject matter seemed to be on par and he always has a way to keep the class engaged and to keep conversation going. Although I am still unsure about grad school, I found it awesome how he always says he is available to speak about applying and getting ready for it! Overall, I think Professor Levy was a fantastic instructor and although it is unlikely that I will be in another one of his classes due to my path, I would most definitely enjoy taking another course that he instructs."

• "From a personal standpoint, this is my first time being immersed in a class that is very conversation-based. I am usually tightly wound and keep to myself, but by the end of the semester I could see that this course helped me get out of that shell. I did not speak as much as I should have, and that is mostly due to my own pace, but Professor Levy really helped me absorb material and engage in conversations about some normally uncomfortable topics."

• "Keep teaching young people to think critically and question each other with respect!"

• "The instructor was very friendly and made it clear that he considered us his equals."

• "This is one of the best-run small-group discussion classes I've ever taken. Ben grades harshly, but offers plenty of feedback, making him and his course an excellent training ground for graduate school."

• "Ben was a great professor who was super understanding and showed passion for the material he was teaching. He was really engaging in class, especially in organizing discussions, and was super helpful when someone didn't entirely understand the concepts being discussed."

• "There was a lot of reading for this class, and I am usually not a fan of that. But, in this case, I was thoroughly interested and the materials helped me broaden my horizons to concepts and ideas that I might not ever have read."

• "I think the in-class discussions and media were really interesting and the out of class readings were super interesting as well."

SOCL 2450: Class, Power, & Social Change (Spring, 2019):

• "Ben is a great professor, mentor, and human being."

• "Ben's passion is clear, and he is the least problematic white male sociology instructor I have had. He is a rarity because he treats us all as equal learners (himself included) and does not flaunt any power dynamics. He is not afraid to admit he was wrong. I felt like I could ask him about anything at all, and his feedback on essays is AWESOME."

• "Instructor Levy made it feel very safe and welcoming, and seemed to respect everyone's opinions while keeping things mostly on track and when someone was wrong he was respectful about it and asked good questions to lead people on their own."

• "Ben was very passionate and made this course great!"

• "Ben was an awesome professor and very enthusiastic about the topics--always smiling and very helpful. I learned a lot and enjoyed the class discussions and found the videos to be very helpful to--overall it was a great class to take outside my major."

• "Very thoughtful professor and would make sure to answer any questions students had very patiently and respectfully."

• "The course is very interesting and opened my eyes to a lot of intricate ideas."

• "The class encourages critical thinking."

• "Very discussion based course which was good to hear multiple perspectives"

• "Instructor Levy did an awesome job with having the syllabus be fluid based on how the individual class was going. He added a lot more diversity to it upon receiving feedback."

RateMyProfessors.com Northeastern Website: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2478921

• ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Fall, 2024)

  • 5/5: “Professor Levy is very nice to students and passionated [sic] on lectures. He is very helpful and flexible when students have any problems. Readings are important for this class and be ready to write some papers. But definitely I would recommend this course :)”

• SOCL 1101: Introduction to Sociology (Fall, 2024)

  • 5/5: “Absolutely wonderful professor, incredibly smart and passionate about his teaching. Also a really nice guy who puts a lot of extra effort into working with students to get an A. Very helpful during office hours too - make sure to take advantage of that if you're a student in his class! Can't recommend Professor Levy highly enough.”

• ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Fall, 2024)

  • 4/5: “Good professor, really cares about his subject. Very willing to give extensions if you ask and make an effort. Lots of reading but no dry textbook, so it went faster.”

• SOCL 4522: Environmental Justice (Summer, 2023):

  • 5/5: “It's not just that his lectures thoroughly explain both the theories and their applications (which they do) or that the course structure will throw new engaging puzzles at you just as you think you've solved them (which it does), but on top of all of that he's a genuinely kind and approachable person. I highly recommend attending his office hours!”

• SOCL 1101: Introduction to Sociology (Spring, 2023):

  • 5/5: “Professor Levy is the most considerate and caring professor I have ever met in my college life. He genuinely cares about his students' development inside and outside the class. He clearly knows what he's teaching and when asked a question, Professor Levy can always draw multiple sociological concepts to give you a reasonable answer.”

  • 5/5: “NO WORDS OTHER THAN : AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING”

  • 5/5: “Amzing amzing. Very fun class. I learnt so so much. I made a mistake to not read, I somehow managed. Please do the reading, it will teach you so much.”

  • 5/5: “Ben is amazing - truly a great human being and one of my favorite profs at Northeastern. As a business student, I learned a totally new perspective on reality from his intro to sociology class. Ben's also crazy smart and cares a lot about his students. Classes include movies, lectures and a lot of class discussions so be ready to participate!”

  • 5/5: “Benjamin cares a lot about his students and is very understanding. The classes consist of him talking through concepts, lots of videos and in class discussions. Provided that you pay attention in class, you'll get an A.”

• IN 152: Cultural Constructions of Identity (Fall, 2022):

  • 5/5: “I took Ben's class at Emerson and it was really enjoyable! Lots of reading but it's worth it because his in class discussions are very interesting. He's extremely into his teaching and it makes his class genuinely engaging. He's very nice as well and felt more like a friend than a professor.”

  • 5/5: “Benjamin is clearly very passionate about his topics. Very discussion based class, but I've never felt like I've learned so much. Great facilitator as well and fostering a very comfortable environment. Love Benjamin and his excitement for the course material is what kept me wanting to keep coming to class.”

• ANTH 2305: Global Markets & Local Culture (Fall, 2022):

  • 5/5: “He's a really nice and understanding professor! As long as you keep up with the readings you should do well.”

• SOCL 2268: Social Movements (Fall, 2019):

  • 5/5: “Had Professor Levy for Social Movements this semester. He is such a kind individual who is also clearly very knowledgeable about the subject material and strives to keep the class interested in it as well. As long as you participate and do at least some of the readings he'll work with you to get the A. Would definitely take another class with him.”

• SOCL 2450: Class, Power, & Social Change (Spring, 2019):

  • 5/5: “This was the first class he taught by himself, but I felt like I got educated by someone who had been doing it for years. The syllabus was dynamic, he respected and asked for student feedback, and changed things after being called out. He leaves awesome essay feedback but isn't a harsh grader. He is a true gem and makes ppl feel safe n respected!”

RateMyProfessors.com Emerson Website: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2872169

• IN 152: Cultural Constructions of Identity (Fall 2023):

  • 5/5: “Professor Levy is amazing! Engaging lectures, clear structure, and he makes abstract concepts easy to grasp. Grading is based on two research papers and some in-class work. He transformed my life and made me realize my passion for sociology. Don't miss the chance to take his class. Readings can be dense, but you can skim them and do well.”

As a white cis-man, I acknowledge that my race-, class-, and gender-privilege has a tendency to conceal the unique obstacles faced by historically marginalized groups. As such, I strive to mindfully uphold the values of equity, diversity, and inclusivity in both my research and pedagogy. While this is certainly true of my teaching - see the above teaching statement for reference - it is no less true of my research, which is rooted in anti-oppressive methodologies and which seeks to redress systemic inequalities that beset North American society. For instance, as a master’s student at Simon Fraser University, I became an activist, organizer, and facilitator for Occupy Vancouver: Vancouver, British Columbia’s local manifestation of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I quickly noticed that activists who dominated the movement’s general assemblies disproportionately shared my own identity as white, cis-male, and college-educated settlers. Out of a desire to understand this problematic tendency, I developed my master’s thesis into an ethnography that critiqued the communicative norms of Occupy Vancouver’s consensus-based decision-making process.

Drawing on my experiences as a facilitator for Occupy Vancouver, my thesis investigated how institutions like patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler colonialism intersected with the Occupy movement's formally-egalitarian general assemblies. Much of my research data derived from interviews with members of Occupy Vancouver’s Native, women's, LGBTQIA+, and houseless people's caucuses. I also made extensive use of feminist and Indigenous epistemologies, as these helped me to expand my own ethnographic positionality in ways that clarified the concerns of marginalized activists. Using these conceptual frameworks, I concluded that white, college-educated men often moderated the Occupy movement's general assemblies in ways that privileged our own identities and modes of social interaction. Due to this exclusionary structure, Occupy Vancouver’s deliberative process often silenced those who communicated in ways that deviated from the white, male, settler ideal.

I continued my scholarly commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a doctoral student at Northeastern University. For instance, in 2015, the Northeastern administration stipulated that university police could begin wielding assault rifles on campus grounds. Many students of color argued that this policy would prevent Black, Hispanic, and other racially marginalized community members from feeling safe within university boundaries. In addition, students feared the consequences of racist violence on the part of police officers carrying automatic weapons. To address these issues, I interviewed African-American faculty and members of Northeastern’s Black Student Association, who shared their suggestions regarding how Northeastern might create a safer system of campus policing. This research formed the basis for a document that I submitted to the university with the intention of sharing community concerns regarding the new policy and its exclusionary consequences.

More recently, for my dissertation, I used ethnographic and community-engaged methods to examine an Indigenous-led movement against liquefied natural gas infrastructure in Tacoma, Washington (see cover letter). To this end, I conducted fieldwork and open-ended interviews with Hispanic immigrants’ rights activists; with Black racial justice activists; and with elders, councilmembers, and youth activists affiliated with the Puyallup Indian Tribe. I gathered my ethnographic data not only as an academic researcher, but also as a public sociologist with a stated interest in facilitating the movement’s strategic goals. Throughout, my dissertation sought to amplify the voices and concerns of Tacoma’s communities of color, which are systematically excluded from the regulatory processes that permit fossil fuel infrastructure. These moments of critical ethnographic research have solidified my commitment not only to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but also to anti-oppressive research practices more broadly.

• Address: Renaissance Park, 1135 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02120

• Email: b.levy@northeastern.edu