Artists and Practitioners in Residence Program

UPCOMING RESIDENCIES

SUSAN SHAW: MARCH 26 - 30, 2012

Marine toxicologist, author, explorer, ocean advocate, and director/founder of the Marine Environmental Research Institute The Northeastern University Humanities Center’s Artists and Practitioners in Residence Program will bring Susan Shaw to campus on March 26th - 30th for an exciting assortment of events for the entire Northeastern community.

Dr. Susan Shaw is a marine toxicologist, author, explorer, ocean advocate, and director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute (MERI) based in Blue Hill, Maine. A Fulbright Scholar with dual degrees from Columbia University in film and public health/ environmental health sciences, Shaw was commissioned by Ansel Adams in 1980 to write Overexposure, the first book on the health hazards of photographic chemicals.

For the past two decades, Shaw has conducted pioneering research documenting the effects of hundreds of man-made chemicals in the ocean environment. She is credited as the first scientist to show that flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products have contaminated marine mammals and commercially important fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Her research has influenced policy decisions in the US and abroad, including the Maine legislature’s decision to ban the neurotoxic flame retardant Deca, and the subsequent US phase-out of the chemical.

An outspoken and influential voice on ocean pollution, Shaw dove in the Gulf of Mexico oil slick in May 2010 and subsequently influenced the national debate on the hazards of chemical dispersants. She is currently leading a region-wide investigation on the effects of oil and chemical dispersants in the Gulf ecosystem. She serves on the Strategic Sciences Working Group (SSWG), the U.S. Department of Interior’s team of 14 scientists charged with assessing health consequences of the oil spill and recommending policy actions to lessen stress in the region.

Shaw is a keynote speaker on marine pollution, ecotoxicology, public health, and science and chemicals policy at universities and major venues around the world. She is chair/founder of The Explorers Club State of the Oceans Forums highlighting solutions to the crisis facing the world’s oceans. She serves on the International Panel on Chemical Pollution, a select group of scientists advising policymakers on the management of toxic chemicals in developed and developing countries.

The recipient of numerous awards, Shaw was named Gulf of Maine “Visionary” by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment representing the New England states and Atlantic Canada. In 2010, she received MORE magazine’s “Noisemaker” Award for her work in the Gulf of Mexico, and a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellowship for 2011-12. This spring, Shaw will receive the Society of Women Geographers’ Gold Medal Award for her “pioneering research of major significance that continues to influence health and toxics policy in the US and abroad.” Joining the ranks of Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, Jane Goodall, and Sylvia Earle, she will be the 19th woman to receive the society’s highest award in 78 years. Dr Shaw will also be honored at the Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation 2011 Rachel Carson Awards for her work in the Gulf of Mexico. In November 2011, she will deliver the keynote address at the Swedish Society for Marine Sciences national conference.

Highlighted Events:

Please check back soon for a full listing of Shaw Residency events open to the public!

RECENT RESIDENCY HIGHLIGHT

To get an idea for what an APRP residency is like, watch the short film on award-winning actor Stephen Lang's residency below.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

For a description of the Artists and Practitioners in Residence Program, click here. »

To propose a residency to the Center, submit a statement of interest here.»

For a description of past APRP Residencies, click here. »