Nicole Fabricant, a professor of anthropology at TU, has been interested in the field since her undergraduate career. She fell in love with the subject because it allowed her to innovate solutions to address inequality and injustice in her local communities.

Fabricant’s research interests have evolved to focus on U.S. environmental justice movements, specifically in South Baltimore. There she works alongside the South Baltimore Community Land Trust and Free Your Voice, an organization of young people from South Baltimore conducting research on environmental overburden and building healthier and more sustainable environments.

“Anthropology allows people to learn about different parts of the world and their conditions,” says Fabricant. “It gives people a sense of empathy and [ability] to see how important it is to step inside someone else’s shoes and walk around in them.”

These youth activists inspired her as she watched them drive a massive campaign against a proposal to build the nation’s largest trash-to-energy incinerator in Baltimore’s Curtis Bay neighborhood. Her interest and passion grew deeper as she met with students like Destiny Watford ’17, who created a “dream team” of lawyers and experts from the environmental justice and public health sectors to amplify youth voices.

Fabricant uses a lens of historical political economy to understand inequality in the world and connect it to South Baltimore. This has generated a new project that dives into the environmental, human health and labor consequences of the coal supply chain—from extraction to export. Through her activism in South Baltimore, she has learned about the human health consequences tied to the city’s open-air coal pier, as fugitive coal dust travels as far as nearly a mile away from the industrial site to residential areas in Curtis Bay.

Anthropology allows people to learn about different parts of the world and their conditions. It gives people a sense of empathy and [ability] to see how important it is to step inside someone else’s shoes and walk around in them.

Nicole Fabricant, Professor of Anthropology

Painting a Canvas Together

As part of her research, Fabricant works with Towson University students and local high schoolers to collect and analyze data on environmental justice.

“I love teaching undergraduates because they are quite creative,” says Fabricant. “It’s like I give them a paint brush and colors and they choose what they want to do with it, and together we create this beautiful painting.”

Fabricant’s mentorship of undergraduate students interested in similar social and political issues earned her the Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology from the American Anthropological Association in 2024. The award is given annually to highlight and acknowledge anthropology teachers based on student nominations.

“Making connections with students and teaching [are among] the most important things to me right now,” says Fabricant. “So to receive an award of this level was culminating and verifying.”

Everyone is deserving of a healthy environment.

Alejandra Mora '21

Alejandra Mora ’21 noted in her nomination of Fabricant that, “Each of her teachings further cultivated my critical thinking skills and pushed my drive to become more involved in my community by organizing against environmental injustices we face in Baltimore. […] She has inspired generations of students to not accept these oppressive systems as the status quo, to realize the classroom is anywhere you step foot in and that no community regardless of size, race or economic standing should be sacrificed. Everyone is deserving of a healthy environment.”