Professor & Department Chair
Office: AL-448A | Email: [email protected]
Website | Sensing Disaster

Matt Lauer is an environmental anthropologist who teaches about and researches environmental change, Indigenous knowledge, disasters, and marine management in Oceania and, more recently, in San Diego. He has conducted over 25 years of research in the Solomon Islands and French Polynesia. Matt is currently the Department Chair.  He was also a founder member of SDSU's Sustainability Program.

His recent book Sensing disaster: Local knowledge and vulnerability in Oceania, published by the University of California Press, tells the story of how a three-story high tsunami slammed into the small island of Simbo in the western Solomon Islands, wreaking havoc on its coastal communities and ecosystems. In an increasingly disaster-prone era of ecological crises, the book brings new possibilities into view for understanding the causes and consequences of calamity, the unintended effects of humanitarian recovery and mitigation efforts, and the nature of local knowledge.

His work has also appeared in a range of journals, including American Anthropologist, Ecology and Society, Ambio, Environmental Conservation, and Global Environmental Change.

He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, including Environmental Anthropology (ANTH 510), Sustainability and Culture (ANTH/SUSTN 353), as well as Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology (ANTH 102).

See his personal webpage for more information.