Caleb Scoville

Caleb Scoville is an assistant professor of sociology at Tufts University, where he studies the politics of environmental knowledge and the dynamics of environmental controversies. Scoville’s research excavates the historical sources of contemporary environmental conflicts and explores the relationship between the natural environment and political senses of “us” and “them.” 

Scoville’s first book project, Stupid Little Fish: Extraction, Conservation, and the Politics of Environmental Decline (under contract with Columbia University Press), is a deep dive into the case of the Delta smelt, a small endangered species of fish caught at the intersection of California’s water wars and America’s culture wars. He has also recently worked on the politics of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, inequities in global biodiversity data, and the status of climate change research in sociology.  Scoville’s research has appeared in leading journals, including the American Journal of Sociology and Science, and has received awards or honorable mentions from five sections of the American Sociological Association. In 2023 he was named an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellow. Scoville holds a BA in political science and economics from Portland State University, an MA in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Scoville’s project, “Divided by Nature: How Environmental Politics Became Partisan and What to Do About It in a Warming World,” will examine how positions on environmental issues became woven into antagonistic partisan senses of “us” and “them” in the United States. He will focus on how powerful individuals, organizations, and institutions contributed to the alignment of environmental positions with those on unrelated hot-button issues like abortion and gun control and offer insight into forging solidarity in the face of climate change, a crisis that affects us all.