Michael Lengefeld, PhD · Northeastern University

Teaching

Courses in Sociology and Environmental Studies that connect theoretical frameworks to the social forces shaping inequality, justice, and the human-environment relationship — grounded in active learning and engaged scholarship.

Teaching Philosophy

The goal across all courses is to deepen collective understanding of the dynamics of power and inequality that shape individuals, human societies, and the natural world. Students learn by doing — applying core theoretical frameworks to interpret contemporary problems, real-world case studies, and surprising cultural artifacts that reveal the social structures shaping everyday life.

01

Sociology · Environmental Studies

Environmental Sociology

The goal of this course is to deepen collective understanding of the dynamics of power and inequality that shape human societies and the natural environment. The class pursues this goal by contextualizing the early work of environmental sociology, reviewing its core theories, and using these theoretical tools to consider inequality, justice, social movements, and other topics relevant to contemporary human-environment interactions.

Students move from foundational frameworks — examining how environmental problems are socially constructed and how responsibility for them is distributed — to cutting-edge debates about environmental justice, the treadmill of production, and the role of social movements in driving ecological reform.

Featured Activity

The Individualization of Responsibility & The Lorax

A notable class activity draws connections between individual consumption and environmental degradation. Students learn about the "individualization of responsibility" and its connection to the "environmental imagination" — then use these concepts to interpret the lessons offered in the classic film The Lorax. The activity reveals how corporate messaging systematically shifts environmental blame from structural forces onto individual consumer choices.

Treadmill of Production Environmental Justice Social Movements Inequality & Nature Individualization of Responsibility Environmental Imagination
02

Sociology · Development Studies

Development, Justice,
and Social Change

This course provides students with an overview of major approaches and debates central to understanding societal development from a sociological perspective. The general goal is to deepen collective understanding of the dynamics of power and inequality that shape individuals, human societies, and the natural world — examining theories of development, justice, and human rights in the contemporary era.

Students engage with world-systems theory, dependency theory, and post-colonial perspectives alongside debates about democracy, sovereignty, and the responsibilities of global institutions — connecting abstract theory to lived experience across the Global North and South.

Featured Activity

The "Banality of Evil" & The Act of Killing

A notable activity focuses on theories of justice and human rights. Students learn about the "banality of evil" — an idea originating with Hannah Arendt and the Nuremberg trials after World War II — and apply the concept to interpret scenes from The Act of Killing, a documentary that confronts the perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide and their chilling normalcy. The activity interrogates how ordinary bureaucratic logic enables mass atrocity.

World-Systems Theory Human Rights Global Inequality Theories of Justice Banality of Evil Post-Colonial Theory
03

Environmental Studies · Sociology

Introduction to
Environmental Studies

This course provides students with an overview of major approaches and debates central to understanding the relationship between nature and society. Students identify evidence from social and environmental sciences that highlights issues of environmental degradation and inequality — learning to read landscapes, ecosystems, and environmental crises through both scientific and humanistic lenses.

The course emphasizes interdisciplinary thinking: connecting ecological science to political economy, cultural analysis to public policy, and local community experience to global environmental change.

Featured Activity

Naturework & the Anne Frank Chestnut Tree

A notable activity focuses on how humans socially construct environmental problems. Students learn about "naturework" — the process through which humans assign cultural meanings to natural objects — and apply the concept to investigate the Anne Frank Chestnut Tree, which became a global symbol of hope and peace in memorials around the world after Anne Frank described it in her diary. The activity reveals how nature becomes a carrier of human memory, trauma, and aspiration.

Human-Environment Relations Environmental Degradation Social Construction Naturework Environmental Inequality Interdisciplinary Methods
04

Sociology · Quantitative Methods

Statistics
and Probability

The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to core statistical concepts and techniques, preparing them for advanced statistical coursework in the social and natural sciences. Students develop fluency in both graphical and numerical approaches to data, and learn to reason carefully about uncertainty, evidence, and inference.

Topics Covered

From Description to Inference

The course covers graphical and numerical univariate statistics, graphical and numerical bivariate statistics, probability, sampling distributions, and statistical inference. Students learn not only the mechanics of statistical analysis but the conceptual foundations that make statistical reasoning essential to social science research — and to evidence-based civic life.

Descriptive Statistics Probability Theory Sampling Distributions Statistical Inference Bivariate Analysis Quantitative Reasoning
05

Sociology · Research Design

Research Methods

This course provides students with a foundational understanding of research methods in the social sciences. It emphasizes the logic of research design, conceptualization and measurement, the range of data collection methods available to social scientists, and what researchers do with data once they have collected it.

Students learn to evaluate existing research critically — identifying the assumptions, strengths, and limitations of different methodological choices — and to design their own research projects with rigor, reflexivity, and ethical awareness.

Core Skills Developed

From Question to Evidence

The course equips students to move from a research question to a valid and reliable design for answering it. Topics include the logic of causation vs. correlation, quantitative and qualitative data collection, survey design, interview methods, ethnographic observation, content analysis, and basic data management and interpretation — preparing students to be both producers and consumers of social science research.

Research Design Conceptualization Survey Methods Qualitative Methods Content Analysis Ethics in Research

Pedagogical Approach

What Students Can Expect

I.

Theory Into Practice

Every course connects sociological and environmental theory to concrete cases — from global supply chains to local ecosystems, from international human rights frameworks to campus food systems. Abstract concepts earn their place by illuminating something real.

II.

Unexpected Entry Points

The most memorable learning often happens when familiar cultural objects — a children's film, a documentary, a chestnut tree — become windows into structural forces. Students develop the habit of seeing power and inequality in places they previously took for granted.

III.

Critical & Reflexive Thinking

Students are encouraged to question assumptions — their own and those embedded in dominant narratives about development, nature, and progress. The goal is not just knowledge transfer but the cultivation of sociological imagination: the capacity to connect personal biography to historical structure.

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