Duane A. Gill

Duane A. Gill, Research Professor

Duane Gill — Duane A. Gill, Research Professor

Department of Sociology
508 McBryde Hall
225 Stanger Street
Blacksburg, VA 24061
duane20@vt.edu

Duane A. Gill is a Research Professor of Sociology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Emeritus Regents Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Gill is a disaster scholar specializing in technological hazards and disasters. He was part of a research team that investigated social impacts of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill through a series of longitudinal studies spanning 24 years. He has also conducted primary research on human impacts of Hurricane Katrina, the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2020 Wakashio shipwreck and oil spill in the island nation of Mauritius. During the past 12 years, Dr. Gill has worked with First Nations in Canada to conduct social impact assessments of energy development activities occurring in their traditional lands and waters. His research activities generally seek to understand community capacity to respond to and recover from disasters, as well as ways to enhance community preparedness and resilience. Dr. Gill is a Fulbright Scholar, having spent the 1998-99 academic year at the University of Bahrain and the Fall 2015 semester as a Visiting Research Chair in Native Studies at the University of Alberta in Canada. He is currently co-editing The Encyclopedia of Technological Hazards and Disasters in the Social Sciences with Drs. Liesel A. Ritchie and Nnenia Campbell, which is expected to be published in 2024.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

Hazards and Disasters
Environmental Sociology
Social Impact Assessment
Community
Indigenous Peoples

Education

Ph.D.in Sociology, Texas A&M University, 1986
M.A. in Sociology, Kansas State University, 1980
B.A. in Sociology, Central College (Iowa), 1978

Publications

Books

Gill, D.A., L.A. Ritchie, and N. Campbell (eds). Forthcoming in 2024. The Encyclopedia of Technological Hazards and Disasters in the Social Sciences. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Picou, J.S., D.A. Gill and M.J. Cohen (eds.). 1997. The Exxon Valdez Disaster: Readings on a Modern Social Problem. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. (Second printing, 1999; Third printing 2008 Delhi, India: Indo American Books).

Journal Articles

Ritchie, L.A., E. Sutley; C. Gibb; D.A. Gill; M. Sibley; J. Husain; K. Hamilton. In press. “‘And then COVID Happened’: Impacts of the Pandemic on Hazard and Disaster Researchers.” Natural Hazards Review.
Ali, S. M. A. and D.A. Gill. 2022. “Media Framing and Agenda Setting (Tone) in News Coverage of Hurricane Harvey: A Content Analysis of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Houston Chronicle from 2017-2018.” Weather, Climate, and Society 14:637-649.
Ritchie, L.A., D.A. Gill and K. Hamilton. 2022. “Winter Storm Uri: Resource Loss and Psychosocial Outcomes of Critical Infrastructure Failure in Texas.” Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy 3(1):83-103.
Ritchie, L.A. and D.A. Gill. 2021. “Considering COVID-19 through the Lens of Hazard and Disaster Research.” Social Sciences 10(7):248. doi:10.3390/socsci10070248
Ritchie, L.A., M.A. Long, M. Chamberlain, and D.A. Gill. 2021. “Citizen Perceptions of Fracking-related Earthquakes: Exploring the Roles of Institutional Failures and Resource Loss in Oklahoma, United States.” Energy Research & Social Science 80:102235.
Gill, D.A., and R.A. Ritchie. 2020. “Considering Cumulative Social Effects of Technological Hazards and Disasters.” American Behavioral Scientist 64(8):1145-1161.
Ritchie, L.A., D.A. Gill, and M.A. Long. 2020. “Factors Influencing Stress Response Avoidance Behaviors following Technological Disasters: A Case Study of the 2008 TVA Coal Ash Spill.” Environmental Hazards 19(5):442-462.
Gray, B.J., D.A. Gill, and J.R. Friedman. 2019. “Analogies and Natural Cycles in Climate Change Skepticism.” Human Organization 78(3):181-191.
Jedd, T, D. Bathke, D.A. Gill, B. Paul, N. Wall, T. Brenadt, J. Petr, A. Mucia and M. Wall. 2018. “Tracking Drought Perspectives: A Rural Case Study of Transformations Following an Invisible Hazard.” Weather, Climate, and Society 10(4):653-672.
Ritchie, L.A., D.A. Gill, and M.A. Long. 2018. “Mitigating Litigating: An Examination of Psychosocial Impacts of Compensation Processes Associated with the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.” Risk Analysis DOI: 10.1111/risa.12969.
Gill, D. A., L.A. Ritchie and J.S. Picou. 2016. “Sociocultural and Psychosocial Impacts of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: Twenty-Four Years of Research in Cordova, Alaska.” Extractive Industries and Society 3:1105-1116.
Gill, D.A., L.A. Ritchie, J.S. Picou, J. Langhinrichsen-Rohling, M.A. Long, and J.W. Shenesey. 2014. The Exxon and BP Oil Spills: A Comparison of Psychosocial Impacts.” Natural Hazards 74:1911–1932.
Ritchie, L.A., D.A. Gill and C. Farnham. 2013. “Recreancy Revisited: Beliefs about Institutional Failure Following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.” Society and Natural Resources 26:655-671 (2012, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2012.690066).
Gill, D.A., J.S. Picou, and L.A. Ritchie. 2012. “The Exxon Valdez and BP Oil Spills: A Comparison of Initial Social and Psychological Impacts.” American Behavioral Scientist 56(1):3-23.

Book Chapters

Gill, D.A. and L.A. Ritchie. 2023. “Energy Development and Sociocultural Inequality among First Nation Peoples.” Pp. 200-223 in M.A. Long, M.J. Lynch, and P.B. Stretesky (eds.). Handbook of Inequality and the Environment. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Gill, D.A. and T. Mix. 2020. “Love Canal: A Classic Case Study of a Contaminated Community.” Pp. 341-352 in Carey Pope and Jing Liu (eds.). An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Toxicology: From Molecules to Man. Elsevier.
Mix, T.L. and D.A. Gill. 2020. “’Dear People of Flint’: Environmental Justice in a Community Context, the Case of Water Contamination in Flint, Michigan.” Pp. 353-361 in Carey Pope and Jing Liu (eds.). An Introduction to Interdisciplinary Toxicology: From Molecules to Man. Elsevier.
Ritchie, L.A., Gill, D.A, and J.R. Harrald. 2019. “Systems Are Tested: Emergency Management and Legal Responses to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.” Pp 219-237 in C. Rubin (ed.). Emergency Management: The American Experience, 1900-2010, Third Edition. Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis.
Gill, D.A. and L.A. Ritchie. 2018. “Contributions of Technological and Natech Disaster Research to the Social Science Disaster Paradigm.” Pp. 39-60 in H. Rodriguez, J. Trainor, and W. Donner (eds). Handbook of Disaster Research, Second Edition. New York: Springer.
Ritchie, L.A. and Gill, D.A. 2018. “The Role of Social Capital in Community Disaster Resilience.” Pp 112-139 in J. Boland (ed.). Resilience: Challenges of Transformational Change. Virginia Tech Center for Community Security and Resilience.
Gill, D.A., L.A. Ritchie and J.S. Picou. 2015. “Litigation and Settlements Following the Exxon Valdez and BP Deepwater HorizonOil Spills: When the Disasters Are Crimes.” Pp. 85-115 in D. W. Harper and K. Frailing (eds.). Crime and Criminal Justice in Disaster (Third Edition). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Gill, D.A. and L.A. Ritchie. 2015. “Sociocultural Survival in the Face of Looming Disaster: The Gitga’at First Nation’s Opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project.” Pp. 211-223 in M. Companion (ed.), Disasters' Impacts on Livelihood and Cultural Survival: Losses, Opportunities, and Mitigation. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis Group.