GREGORY A

GREGORY A. PETER, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Sociology

UW--Fox Valley

I was raised in a rural area in Dunn County, Wisconsin near a town called Elk Mound. I am currently an environmental and rural sociologist with specialties in food systems, agriculture, and the environment as well as community studies and development. I earned a BA in East Asian Studies with an Environmental Studies minor at UW-Madison, an MS in Rural Sociology and PhD in Sociology at Iowa State University. I changed majors and took time off between my degrees, teaching at public universities, private colleges, technical schools, business schools, and a nursing school. My first tenure-track job was in Harrisonburg, Virginia at James Madison University. I spent three years there and then happily moved my family (wife, two daughters, three dogs, and a cat) back to our home state of Wisconsin the summer of 2003.

I am a co-author of a book, several articles, and dozens of research presentations on rural sociology, sustainable agriculture, and the interface between the environment and society. My ongoing research project in the Fox Valley includes working with community agencies to help resolve issues of natural resource management, community planning, and growth issues. I also encourage my UW-Fox students to do field research with me. I recently gave a research presentation with one of my UW-Fox students at a conference at UW-Madison. We sit in seminar format for all of my classes at UW-Fox and I encourage my students to form groups, do field research, write reports, and do presentations on their results.

I am an applied sociologist conducting fieldwork and consulting for the USDA Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Resource Conservation and Development groups, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, and Cooperative Extension agencies. The reason why I became a sociologist is because I really believe that sociology can help make the world a better place to live in.