Northeastern University · Sociology & Environmental Studies
Michael Lengefeld
Doctor of Philosophy · Professor & Public Scholar
Research at the intersection of geopolitics, political economy, science and technology studies, and public and environmental health. Comparative-historical and quantitative work on PFAS contamination, Cold War nuclear weapons production, the U.S. War on Drugs in Latin America, and the social consequences of asymmetric warfare — published in Environmental Science and Technology, npjClimate Action,Journal of World-Systems Research, Human Ecology Review, Armed Forces & Society, Sport in Society, and Social Science & Medicine.
Biography
Scholarship at the Intersection of War, Environment & Health
Michael Lengefeld is a sociologist whose research examines the dynamics of geopolitics, political economy, science and technology studies, and public and environmental health in a global context. His mixed-methods scholarship spans comparative-historical case studies and quantitative cross-national analyses, consistently asking how the organized use of power — by states, militaries, and corporations — reshapes the ecological and social conditions of human life.
His comparative-historical work on the environmental consequences of Cold War nuclear weapons production traces the radioactive legacies of Hanford, Rocky Flats, and other nuclear weapons sites — documenting how national security doctrines concealed ecological atrocities from the public for decades. His research on the U.S. War on Drugs in Latin America examines how aerial fumigation campaigns devastated Andean ecosystems and rural communities in Colombia and Peru, producing a ban on coca fumigation that drew directly on this research.
A major strand of Dr. Lengefeld's recent work addresses environmental health and PFAS contamination. As a co-author of the PFAS Project Lab at Northeastern University, he contributed to the first nationwide characterization of the landscape of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance contamination in the United States — mapping 79,891 presumptive contamination sites and demonstrating that 94% of confirmed groundwater detections exceed EPA health-based limits. This work connects environmental sociology to urgent public health questions about water safety, industrial accountability, and environmental justice.
His quantitative work includes panel studies examining asymmetric warfare and carbon emissions across 126 nations, cross-national analyses of nuclear technology and CO₂ output, and spatial regression analyses documenting how ICE detention facilities accelerated COVID-19 transmission in surrounding communities during the pandemic. Additional research examines the social dynamics of zoonotic spillover and pandemic risk, and the corporate counterframing strategies that delayed U.S. youth sports concussion legislation.
Dr. Lengefeld's research intersects with his community work. He currently works with the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, which works on state environmental legislation and regulation, and the Tribal PFAS Working Group, which is focused on addressing and reducing PFAS in Indian Country. He is a founding member and former president of the Food Recovery Network at Washington State University and has contributed to the Goucher Prison Education Project, expanding access to higher education for incarcerated individuals. He teaches courses in Sociology and Environmental Studies, with a focus on social and environmental transformation, human-environment relations, and quantitative research methods.