Mimi Sheller

Worcester

Professor Mimi Sheller, Ph.D., is the Inaugural Dean of The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Massachusetts. She was founding co-director of the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University in England, and then became Professor of Sociology, Head of the Sociology Department, and founding Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Sheller is an interdisciplinary scholar with interests in Caribbean Studies, Mobilities Research, and Social Theory. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator for the NOAA CAP Caribbean Climate Adaptation Network (2023-2027) and PI for a related NOAA-BIL award on Improving Engagement Methods for Coastal Resilience and Reducing Climate Risk (2023-2027). She has published more than 150 articles and book chapters, and is the author or co-editor of fifteen books, including Advanced Introduction to Mobilities (Edward Elgar, 2021); Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene (Duke University Press, 2020); Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes (Verso, 2018); and Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity (MIT Press, 2014). She was founding co-editor of the journal Mobilities, Associate Editor of Transfers, and past President of the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility. She has received research funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Innovation Fund Denmark, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the British Academy, the U.K. Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Macarthur Foundation, the Mobile Lives Forum, and the Graham Foundation in Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Sheller completed her AB at Harvard University, in History and Literature (1988, summa cum laude) and her MA (1993) and PhD (1997) in Sociology and Historical Studies at the New School for Social Research. She was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa from Roskilde University, Denmark in 2015. She has held Visiting Fellowships at the University of Miami (2019); the Annenberg School of Communication at University of Pennsylvania (2016); the Penn Humanities Forum (2010); the Center for Mobility and Urban Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark (2009); Media@McGill, Canada (2009); the Davis Center for Historical Studies at Princeton University (2008).