Research Areas

• Environmental Justice
• Political Ecology
• Climate Change
• Sea Level Rise
• Flood Risk 

Bio

Dr. Hardy received his Ph.D. in Integrative Conservation and Geography from the University of Georgia in 2016. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Maryland’s NSF-funded National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center from 2016-2019. He received his M.S. in Ecology in 2009 and three B.S. degrees in Marine Sciences, Biology, and Ecology with a minor in Anthropology from the University of Georgia in 2003. He has been at USC since 2019 and is jointly appointed in the School of the Earth, Ocean & Environment and the Department of Geography.

Research

The core of Dr. Hardy’s research examines how climate change exacerbates issues of environmental justice with a special focus on how these issues relate to increased coastal flooding under rising seas. Broadly, his research spans from assessing private conservation strategies to examining processes that produce social inequities and vulnerability from local to global scales. His research employs mixed methods including spatial analyses, interviews, and participant observation. Dr. Hardy is an Affiliated Investigator with the Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research Program funded by NSF. And, as part of conducting anti-racist and community-based social science research, he is an Advisory Board member to the UGA Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture, an organization that seeks “to address important questions on the history, present status, and future of agriculture, property politics, and related issues” in a predominantly African American sea island community in coastal Georgia.

Teaching

• ENVR 201: Environmental Science and Policy I
• ENVR 202: Environmental Science and Policy II
• GEOG 347: Water as a Resource
• AFAM/ENVR 348: Environmental Racism and Justice
• ENVR/GEOG 517: Socionatural Coastlines in Global Perspective

External Grants

2025 – 2031. NSF DEB - Long Term Ecological Research ($7,542,000; USC Sub-award $162,175 with $73,970 directly to Hardy). LTER: Georgia Coastal Ecosystems V. PI: Merryl Alber (UGA); Co-PIs: Steve Pennings (Houston), Amanda Spivak (UGA); USC Senior Personnel: Alicia Wilson, Dean Hardy; plus 17 Senior Personnel from five other institutions.

2025 – 2027. US Geological Survey ($182,430). Social-Ecological Vulnerability in Human Communities Surrounding Large Protected Areas in the Southeast. PI: John Kupfer (USC); Co-PIs: Paul Armsworth (UTK), Dean Hardy.

2025 – 2026. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation ($820,463; USC Sub-award $19,953). Coastal Habitat Restoration on Sapelo Island for Flood Risk Reduction (GA). PI: Brock Woodson (UGA); Co-PIs: Nik Heynen (UGA), Dean Hardy (USC PI); Partners: Save Our Legacy Ourself 501(c)3, Shell to Shore 501(c)3

2024 – 2027. NOAA Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience Grant ($2,778,219; USC Sub-award $30,883). Oyster reef restoration on Sapelo Island for coastal hazard protection and multiple benefits. PI: Brock Woodson (UGA); UGA Co-PIs: Nik Heynen, Matt Bilskie, Elizabeth King, Amy Rosemond, Tom Bliss, Olorunjuedalo Oguntoyinbo; USC Co-PI (PI on sub): Dean Hardy.

2023-2027. NSF EPSCoR RII Track-2 FEC ($3,999,169; USC Sub-award $942,782). An interdisciplinary program for research, education, and outreach on climate change and adaptive resilience in the Yazoo - Mississippi Delta. Shrinidhi Ambinakudige (MSU PI); Co-PIs: Dean Hardy (Sub-award PI), Brian Williams (MSU), Christy Hyman (MSU), Fikriyah Winata (MSU); Senior Personnel: Monica Barra (USC), Renee Clary (MSU). Jamie Dyer (MSU), Boniface Fosu (MSU), Jamese Sims (MSU), Frank Mrema (Alcorn State), Raja Reddy (MSU), Hattie Spencer (MVSU), Etienne Toussaint (USC). Award #2316382.

Representative Publications

Hossain, Md. S., S. Ambinakudige, B. Williams, D. Hardy, J. Mensah. (2026) A Place-Based Framework for Assessing Flood-Related Socio-Economic Vulnerability in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (143). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2026.106338.

Hardy, D. (2023) Flood risk as legacy vulnerability: Reading the past into the present for Environmental Justice. Geoforum 142. DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103757.

Hardy, D., M. Bailey, N. Heynen (2022) “We’re still here”: An abolition ecology blockade of double dispossession of Gullah/Geechee land. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 112(3). DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2021.1989282.

Hardy, R.D. (2021) A sharing meanings approach for interdisciplinary hazards research. Risk Analysis 41(7). DOI: 10.1111/risa.13216.

Hauer, M., D. Hardy, S. Kulp, V. Mueller, D. Wrathall, & P. Clark (2021) Assessing population exposure to coastal flooding due to sea level rise. Nature Communications 12(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27260-1.

Thomas, K., R.D. Hardy, H. Lazrus, M. Mendez, B. Orlove, I. Rivera-Collazo, J.T. Roberts, M. Rockman, B. Warner, & R. Winthrop (2019) Explaining differential vulnerability to climate change: a social science review. WIREs Climate Change, 10(2). DOI: 10.1002/wcc.565.

Hardy, R.D. & M. Hauer (2018) Social vulnerability projections improve sea-level rise risk assessments. Applied Geography, 91. DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.12.019.

Hardy, R.D., R.A. Milligan, & N. Heynen (2017) Racial coastal formation: The environmental injustice of colorblind adaptation planning for sea-level rise. Geoforum, 87. DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.10.005.

Hardy, R.D. & B.L. Nuse (2016) Global sea-level rise: Weighing country responsibility and risk. Climatic Change, 137(3). DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1703-4.