Skip to main content
Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Dr. Michael L Dougherty

Professor
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 354
Office Phone
(309) 438-5790office
phone
Email
mdoughe@ilstu.eduemail
Website
mldougherty.weebly.comwebsite
  • About
  • Education
  • Selected Research

Biography

Michael L. Dougherty is Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University, USA. His work focuses on the industrial and political ecologies of global mining industries and environmental conflicts. He is the editor of two books and the author of over twenty articles and chapters. Dougherty is a former non profit manager and returned Peace Corps volunteer.

Current Courses

SOC 499.002 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis

SOC 400.007 Independent Study

SOC 398.002 Professional Practice:Internship In Sociological Research

SOC 291.009 Undergraduate Teaching Experience In Sociology-Anthropology

Teaching Interests & Areas

My courses draw from the subfields of community, rural, environmental and development sociologies. I regularly teach Sociology 241, People in Places, a survey of community sociology and Sociology 330, Society and Environment, an advanced undergraduate course in environmental sociology. I occasionally teach Sociology 300, Senior Experience, our capstone research course for majors and Sociology 106, Introduction to Sociology. I have taught a graduate seminar on the political economy of climate migration and developed new courses in climate change and migration and the twilight of US Democracy.

Ph D

University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin

BA

Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, NY

Book, Edited

Mining in Latin America: Critical Approaches to the New Extraction
Michael Dougherty, Kalowatie Deonandan.
(2019), Routledge

Journal Article

Building Post-Fordism from the Shopfloor Up: Labor’s Constrained Agency and Caterpillar’s Employee Satisfaction Process
Utkarsh Kumar, Michael Dougherty.
Journal of Labor and Society, 28 (2), 230-253, (2025)
Syllabus as Argument in an Era of Politicized Pedagogy
Michael L Dougherty.
Sociological Forum, 39 (3), 223-230, (2024)
Boom times for Technocrats? How Environmental Consulting Companies Shape Mining Governance
Michael Dougherty.
Extractive Industries and Society, 6 (2), 443-453, (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2019.01.007
Contingent Work in the U.S. Recycling Industry: Permatemps and Precarious Green Jobs
Michael Dougherty, Alexis Econie.
Geoforum, 99 (1), 132-141, (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.11.016
How Does Development Mean? Attitudes toward Mining and the Social Meaning of Development in Guatemala
Michael Dougherty.
Latin American Perspectives, 46 (2), 161-181, (2019), https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0094582X18820273
Porousness and Peru's Moratorium on Genetically Modified Organisms: Stakeholder Epistemologies and Neoliberal Science
Teddy Dondanville, Michael Dougherty.
Environmental Sociology, (2019), https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2019.1690726
Can Mining Produce Development in Central America?
Michael Dougherty.
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, (April 16, 2017), (2017)
Entanglements of Firm Size and Country of Origin with Mining Company Reputational Risk in Guatemala
Michael Dougherty.
ISA eSymposium, 7 (1), 15, (2017)

Presentations

Is the renewable energy industry a tool to fight climate change?
Michael Dougherty, Batkiewicz Nicole.
Annual Meeting 2026, Washington, DC, March, 2026
Caterpillar’s Spatial Metamorphosis: Heavy Equipment Manufacturing in the Twenty First Century
Michael L Dougherty, Utkarsh Kumar.
Annual Meeting 2025, Chicago, IL, November 20, 2025