HRRC director to head ISA
disaster research committee

Walter Gillis Peacock, director of Texas A&M's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, has been named to a four-year term as president of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on the Sociology of Disasters.

The committee serves to provide a forum where academics and practitioners share information about all aspects of disasters. At the ISA's annual world congress, the committee hosts sessions where attendees learn about the latest hazard research around the world.

The ISA, a nonprofit association in the field of sociology and social sciences, represents sociologists everywhere, regardless of their school of thought, scientific approaches or ideological opinion, and advances sociological knowledge throughout the world. Its members come from 167 countries.

The organization publishes the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, which features scholarly articles focusing on hazard research and theory, book and film reviews, editorial commentaries about hazard issues, and more.

The journal is edited by Mike Lindell, professor of urban planning at Texas A&M.

Peacock, an urban planning professor and holder of the Rodney L Dockery Endowed Professorship in Housing and the Homless, joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2002. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Georgia, a Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Columbus College.

Throughout his academic career, Peacock has written or co-authored several books and articles including "Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender and the Sociology of Disaster," London: Routledge, 1997; "Living Conditions, Disasters and Development: An Approach to Cross-Cultural Comparisons," University of Georgia Press, 1993; “Hurricane risk perceptions among Florida’s Single Family Homeowners,” Landscape and Urban Planning, 2005; “Hurricane Mitigation Status and Factors Influencing Mitigation Status Among Florida’s Single-Family Homeowners,” Natural Hazards Review, 2003 and “Modeling Hurricane Evacuation Decisions with Ethnographic Methods,” International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 2001.

- Posted: Sept. 30, 2010 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.