Professor of Environment and Sustainability
Joshua Newell is an assistant professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. He is a broadly trained human-environment geographer, whose research focuses on questions related to urban sustainability, resource consumption, and environmental and social justice. Newell’s current research can be divided into two primary areas of interest. The first, Urban Infrastructure and Form, focuses on structural features of the urban form (e.g. built environment, transport, energy, and water infrastructure). The second research area, Urban Consumption and Commodities, focuses on the interrelationships between the consumption of consumer products, our responsibilities as global ‘green’ urban citizens, and the role of governance mechanisms and frameworks (including local institutions) in regulating product consumption. His research approach is often multi-scalar and integrative and, in addition to theory and method found in geography and urban planning, he draws upon principles and tools of industrial ecology, and spatial analysis. In terms of sustainable food systems, Newell is conducting research on how urban agriculture might be ‘scaled-up’ and what this means for existing food, energy, and water flows, as well as food sovereignty, justice, and community viability.
Newell teaches Sustainability and Society (ENVIRON 207), a survey course for undergraduates and includes two classes on food systems.
