Rik
Scarce joined the Skidmore College faculty in the fall of
2003. He teaches Environmental
Sociology, Social Theories of the Environment, Environmentalisms,
Sociological
Perspectives, Development of
Sociological Thought, Contemporary Social Theory, Social
Movements and
Collective Behavior, Political Sociology, and other classes.
Previously,
he taught at the Lyman Briggs School (now College) at Michigan State
University,
where, in 2002, he received the University
and the College of Natural Science Teacher-Scholar awards. He has
also taught in the Sociology Department at Montana State University,
and he has guest lectured at more than fifteen colleges and
universities in the
United States and Canada.
include
an update of his first one, Eco-Warriors:
Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement (Left Coast Press,
2006), Contempt of Court: A
Scholar's Battle for Free Speech from Behind Bars (Alta Mira
Press, 2005), Fishy Business: Salmon, Biology, and the Social
Construction of Nature (Temple University Press, 2000), and the
first edition of Eco-Warriors (Noble Press, 1990); he is also
the editor of Syllabi and Instructional Materials for Environmental
Sociology, 4th and 5th editions, for the American Sociological
Association (1999 and 2003). Rik has authored or co-authored scholarly articles and book chapters on the social construction of nature, the international environmental movement, teaching methods, environmental conflict resolution, environmental attitudes, environmental futures, electronic democracy, and research ethics. His journal articles have been published in Symbolic Interaction, Society and Natural Resources, Teaching Sociology, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Law and Social Inquiry, The American Sociologist, Animals and Society, and elsewhere, and he has also been published in the Chronicle of Higher Education and a variety of lay outlets.
Among the more unusual events in his life, Rik was jailed for five months in 1993 for refusing to cooperate fully with a federal grand jury. His "contempt of court" citation
resulted
from his defense of the First Amendment's "free press" clause. In
particular, Rik argued for a researcher's
right to safeguard confidential
communications. He also was following the American
Sociological Association's Code of Ethics, which forbade
sociologists from violating promises of confidentiality that they make
to research participants.