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Kathleen J. Tierney

Kathleen Tierney is professor emerita in the Department of Sociology and a research professor at the Natural Hazards Center in the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder. She is a former director of the Natural Hazards Center and of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. Tierney is the author of The Social Roots of Risk (Stanford University Press, 2014), Disasters: A Sociological Approach (Polity Press, 2019) and many other publications on the societal dimensions of hazards, disasters, and risk. She has served on several National Academies panels and committees dealing primarily with climate-change decision-making, and she is currently a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest posts

Pandemic and Disaster: Insights from Seventy Years of Social Science Disaster Research

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Inaugurating the “Disaster Studies” theme of our “Covid-19 and the Social Sciences” series, Kathleen Tierney reflects on how major findings from social science research on disasters can help to contextualize and frame our understanding of the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, she looks at the importance of communication to the influence of social responses in hazardous circumstances, reminding us that society tends toward social solidarity, rather than disorganization and panic, in times of crises. Though many social practices, such as scapegoating, can further tear the fabric of society, disasters reveal and amplify not only inequality and vulnerability, but also potential strength. In moving forward, it will be vital to learn the lessons research on both aspects have to offer.

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May 21, 2020

The Red Pill

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In the first episode of the film trilogy The Matrix, lead character Neo was given the option of taking a red pill, which would enable him to understand what was actually occurring outside the illusion created by the Matrix, or a blue pill, which would allow him to return to experiencing only that illusion. Because he […]

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June 11, 2006

Strength of a City: A Disaster Research Perspective on the World Trade Center Attack

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The September 11 attacks and their aftermath are a living laboratory for those wishing to better understand how individuals, groups, and organizations respond under extreme disaster conditions. Along with other major disaster events, September 11 revealed much about institutional responses and collective behavior in crises, underscoring what is already known about the social processes that […]

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November 1, 2001
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