Kevin Smiley
Assistant Professor Louisiana State University
- Baton Rouge LA
Dr. Smiley is an environmental and urban sociologist who specializes in disaster research.
Areas of Expertise
Biography
After graduating, Kevin was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Buffalo from 2017-2020. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University.
Kevin is an environmental and urban sociologist who specializes in disaster research. Being able to bridge his work to the communities along the Gulf Coast is an aspect of his new job that he’s been looking forward to for a long time. He says, “LSU has fantastic resources and a great community of researchers with whom to pursue this type of work, and the challenges we face along the Gulf Coast are highly motivating for me as a researcher.” Apart from the time he’s spent as a researcher, Kevin has also enjoyed his time teaching the students of LSU as well. While teaching undergraduate sociological theory in the fall, he was impressed with how his students managed to synthesize theory and apply it to current events. Collaborating with the students, as well as with his faculty colleagues, is something he’s appreciative of.
Research Focus
Environmental Justice & Urban Disaster Vulnerability
Dr. Smiley’s research focuses on environmental justice and urban disaster vulnerability, investigating how race, climate change, and spatial inequality shape flood risk and recovery across U.S. cities. He integrates spatial-demographic modeling, community surveys, and post-disaster fieldwork to map risk hotspots and guide equitable resilience planning.
Education
Rice University
Ph.D.
Sociology
2017
University of Memphis
M.A.
Sociology
2012
Western Kentucky University
B.A.
Sociology and History
2010
Accomplishments
Featured Researcher, National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University at Buffalo.
2019
Kinder Scholar, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University
2018-2019
Marvin E. Olsen Student Paper Award, Environment and Technology Section, American Sociological Association
2016
Media Appearances
Q&A: How China is adapting to increasingly frequent flooding
Carbon Brief online
2024-06-24
Dr Kevin Smiley, assistant professor from the department of sociology of Louisiana State University tells Carbon Brief:
“Climate change is increasing the severity and frequency of extreme weather. Extra rainfall induced by climate change can be the difference between a building’s parking lot hosting puddles on a rainy day compared to floodwaters crossing the threshold of the building and causing thousands of dollars of damages.
“It’s always important to remember: climate change is anthropogenic, so this increased risk also has human-caused roots.”
Interview on Weather Unfiltered
The Weather Channel tv
2024-05-31
An estimated 2.5 million people were displaced from their homes by weather-related disasters last year, according to the @uscensusbureau
We spoke with Dr. Kevin Smiley at @LSU about the national impact of displacement during hurricane season:
Americans are flocking to cities most at risk of extreme weather. Can they stand the heat?
The Globe and Mail online
2023-07-29
Instead, the reasons are more complex, rooted partly in the ways people have been drawn to regions that have become desirable places to live and work despite their potential for future climate-related trouble. Economic incentives have not tended to favour climate caution. No city wants to shrink, and municipalities in the U.S. south have proven particularly effective at pursuing economic growth.
“I don’t think there’s many policy-makers in Houston that are trying to discourage migration to Houston – if any,” said Kevin Smiley, an environmental sociologist at Louisiana State University.
4 ways hurricanes are becoming more dangerous and why
Environmental Defense Fund online
2023-07-24
Why it matters: “Just a few extra centimeters of rainfall from climate change could be the difference between getting a very soaked lawn or thousands of dollars of property damage,” says Kevin T. Smiley of Louisiana State University, who studies disasters and climate change.
New data shows Louisiana is losing college grads to Texas and other states
Louisiana Illuminator online
2023-06-06
And when excluding the New Orleans metro, which saw over 100,000 residents under 25 leave, the demographics of those leaving shifted slightly, showing that those 55 and older are the second largest group leaving the state. Why those who are typically retired are leaving could be two-fold, Smiley and Slack explained.
Articles
Environmental attitudes as a hegemonic discourse? Towards decolonial epistemologies of environmental orientations
Environmental Sociology2025
Environmental attitudes have long been a central focus within environmental sociology. This work addresses topics from climate change denial and political roots of environmental attitudes to how demographic characteristics and culture influence attitudes. Even with this breadth, questions remain about the scope and representation of this research. This paper reviews major theoretical perspectives in sociological research on environmental attitudes, revealing that these frameworks are predominantly Global North centric. While successfully describing attitudes in a Western context, this work is inadequate in explaining the environmental orientations in many non-Western contexts.
Urban sprawl drives heterogeneous flood exposure patterns along socio-demographic gradients: a case study in the Amite River Basin during the 2016 Louisiana (USA) Floods
Environmental Research Communications2025
The impact of floods may be exacerbated due to urban sprawl, which leads to residential development in naturally flood-prone areas. In the United States (US), urban sprawl has been historically tied to racial segregation, while flood-prone suburban development has been facilitated by flood insurance. While previous studies have found links between flood exposure and socio-demographic inequities, no research has addressed this question by looking at watershed-level segregation and the location of properties relative to flood-prone areas. We evaluate socio-demographic patterns of flood impact during the 2016 Floods in Louisiana (LA), USA, and whether these impacts differed inside or outside the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), the nation's main flood risk indicator for property owners.
Local Social Capital, Disaster Housing Damage, and Mental Health: Insights from Hurricane Harvey
Society and Mental Health2024
Community-level social capital has been theorized to shape mental health, particularly in disaster contexts, but methodological complexities hamper prior studies. Pairing zip-code-level data on social capital from Opportunity Insights with repeated cross-sectional health survey data before and after Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas, we examine how local social capital moderated the mental health consequences of disaster housing damage. We first document null associations between local social capital and residents’ mental health before the disaster. Next, we fit models predicting psychological distress and poor mental health days, revealing that local levels of economic connectedness and rates of volunteering offset adverse mental health effects of home damage after the storm and patterned disaster assistance receipt.
Overlooked realities: Reimagining “Home” and “House” among women domestic workers in India
Violence Against Women2024
Domestic workers (DWs) are integral to the daily lives of a significant portion of India's urban population, with an estimated 3.9 million individuals employed in domestic roles in urban areas, mostly women. This article explores the perceptions of home, house, and safe spaces among migrant women DWs in Delhi. Through in-depth interviews, it delves into their lived experiences as both breadwinners and survivors of domestic violence, revealing that (a) house and home are differently conceptualized by these workers; (b) their homes are perceived as warzones, reinforcing patriarchy through incidents of domestic violence and gendered subordination; and (c) women DWs navigate the complexities of conflicting identities as breadwinners and survivors within unequal gendered relationships.
Analyzing gas station visits during Hurricane Ida: implications for future fuel supply
Transportation Research Record2024
Fuel demand surges and supply shortages during hurricanes are problematic. However, fuel consumption and refueling behavior are not well discussed in disaster scenarios compared with the extant literature on these topics during normal conditions. This study used an emerging data source to report when fuel demand (indicated by gas station visits) deviated from a normal variation range during Hurricane Ida (a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane in 2021), how long the deviation lasted, and which area(s) experienced greater deviations. Gas station visits are likely to surge within 2 days before storm landfall, while evacuation destinations and intermediate trip connectors had longer surges. Using univariate linear regression, this study also statistically explored what factors might affect the fuel demand deviation at an aggregate level.
Affiliations
- American Sociological Association (ASA)
- Social Science Extreme Events Research Network (SSEER)
- Southern Sociological Society (SSS)
Research Grants
AREER: Investigating Iterative Interrelations in Socio-Environmental Processes to Improve Climate Change Attribution Research
National Science Foundation: Human, Disasters, and Built Environment
2024-2029
Addressing Wind Risk Disparities and Fostering Social Equity within the Coastal Master Plan
RESTORE Act Center of Excellence for Louisiana – Research Awards
2024-2026
Systems Based Approaches to Risk and Resilience: the Louisiana Social, Environment, and Economic Resilience (LA-SEER) Center
LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research – Big Idea Research Grants
2024-2025
Media
