Marcia Hale

Bio & Education

Marcia Rosalie Hale, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability. Her interdisciplinary work bridges social and environmental justice, public health, and peacebuilding.

Research & Approach

Dr. Hale’s scholarship explores the nexus of social and environmental conflict, with a particular focus on the public health consequences of global environmental change. Through partnerships with communities and academic collaborators, Dr. Hale applies justice-centered frameworks to examine social, political, infrastructure, and environmental systems. Her research aims to identify barriers and pathways toward “positive peace” and equitable environmental futures. Currently, she investigates relationships between community-engaged and societally impactful research, as well as applied and basic science, through a grant-funded project focused on environmental justice in Eastern North Carolina.

Dr. Hale is a founding member of the Community Placemaking Action Lab, where she designs and facilitates projects that address global environmental change, migration, and housing insecurity. This work incorporates applied theatre, story circles, and other healing-centered methodologies to reimagine research as a tool for healing and transformation—not just data collection.

Practice & Affiliations

A trained restorative justice mediator and facilitator, Dr. Hale has extensive experience in community and court-based mediation. She is a member of the Climate-Homelessness Working Group and the Diversity Scholars Network. Her personal and professional ethos is rooted in nonviolent communication, Indigenous knowledge systems, restorative practices, and mindfulness—principles that guide her teaching, research, and community engagement.

Research Interests

Dr. Hale’s research is rooted in justice, healing, and systems transformation. Her areas of inquiry include:

• Public health impacts of global environmental change

• Social determinants of health related to climate, migration, and housing precarity
• Human and civil rights
• Rights of Nature
• Environmental and climate justice policy
• Transboundary water conflict and peacebuilding
• Gender and peacebuilding
• Environmental security and peacebuilding
• Restorative justice
• Research as a restorative and healing practice
• Transformative storytelling and the solidarity of witnessing

Education

• Ph.D. in Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles
• M.A. in Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles
• B.A. in International Development, University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Hale’s formal academic training is complemented by a deep commitment to ongoing, relational learning—especially through partnerships with communities and fellow researchers. Her continuing education reflects a rich tapestry of interdisciplinary, justice-centered, and experiential learning experiences:

Continuing Education & Professional Development

Continuing education occurs constantly in relationship, especially relationships with community and academic research partners. Additional education that informs Dr. Hale’s work includes:

• A Year to Live (mindfulness and trauma) – Spirit Rock
• Indigenous Pedagogies Workshop – UNCG
• Decolonizing Knowledge – Middlebury Institute for International Studies and George Mason University
• Implementation Research – Research Talk
• Qualitative Methods Training – UNCG
• Diversity and Equity Training – UNCG
• Freedom to Choose Project – Service Learning for Prison Project
• EMBeRs: Leading Interdisciplinary Research Teams – U of Texas
• Global Environmental Policy & Negotiation Program – U of Geneva and UNEP
• Urban Futures Lab – University of Geneva
• Rumi Fellows – Turkey: Country Exposure Trip
• American Institute on Political and Economic Systems – Prague
• Transitional Justice School – University of Groningen & Pomona College
• Conflict Transformation – Transforming Civil Conflicts
• Nonviolent Civil Action – James Lawson Institute
• Restorative Justice & Family Mediations – Centinela Youth Services
• Spanish Language and Histories Program – Proyecto Linguistico, Guatemala
• Mediation and Dispute Resolution – Center for Dispute Resolution, Los Angeles
• Development & Industrialization of the Global South – University of Southern Alabama in Ghana

Courses Taught

• Integrated Colloquium (PCS 690)
• Skills in Transformative Conflict (PCS 622)
• Critical Foundations of Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS 621)
• Skills and Techniques of Conflict Management (PCS 605)
• Fundamentals of Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies (PCS 600)
• Environmental Security and Peacebuilding (GES 481/681)
• Gender and Peacebuilding (PCS 479/679)
• Conflict Transformation at the Food-Water Nexus (PCS 432/632)
• Conflict Transformation (PCS 315)
• Conflict Research (PCS 311)
• Conflict and Culture (PCS 309)
• Violence in the Modern World (PCS 205)