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Tim Haney, PhD

Professor of Sociology

Coordinator, Sociology Program


Education
PhD, University of Oregon
MA, Tulane University
BA, Ripon College

Email: thaney@mtroyal.ca

Curriculum Vitae

Webpage


Profile

Tim Haney is a Professor of Sociology at MRU, and a faculty affiliate of the Centre for Community Disaster Research (CCDR). His teaching and research interests include the sociology of disaster, environmental sociology, urban sociology, the sociology of science, and quantitative methods. He founded and served as Director of the CCDR from 2014 to 2019, and was the inaugural Board of Governors Research Chair in Resilience and Sustainability from 2019 to 2022.

Research Interests

Disaster and crisis response

Risk awareness & perception

Post-disaster migration & decision-making

Gender inequalities after disaster

Fossil fuels & petro-cultures

Climate change denial

Cities & urban development

Permaculture &urban agriculture

Methods & ethics for disaster research

Dr. Haney's research looks at how families, neighbourhoods, and communities prepare for and respond to catastrophic events like hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and oil spills, amidst the planetary climate emergency. His articles have looked at how disaster-affected residents perceive risk and experience uncertainty, how they make evacuation decisions, how disasters affect their environmental views and practices, how the social networks of affected residents change over the course of evacuation and displacement, as well as establishing best-practices for disaster research methods. More recently, Dr. Haney undertook a SSHRC-funded study of practitioners of permaculture in Western Canada, analyzing how they conceive of risk, challenge the logics of capitalism, form networks and social capital, and work to enhance community resilience. This work resulted in his forthcoming book titled Imagining Ecotopia: Risk and the Promise of Permaculture.

Teaching

Dr. Haney regularly teaches courses including the Sociology of Disaster (SLGY 4411), Environmental Sociology (SLGY 2255), Quantitative Methods (SLGY 3321), and the Sociology of Science (SLGY 3340). 

His approach to teaching is participatory, critical, scholarly, reflective, experiential, service-oriented, and geared toward social change. In particular, he relishes opportunities to engage classes in experiential learning and service-learning, and is proud to have taken two classes of students to New Orleans on field schools to learn about disaster recovery while serving the community. He also supervises many student honours theses, coauthors scholarly articles with MRU students, and involves students in his funded research projects to facilitate hands-on learning. Dr. Haney was selected as the 2022 “Outstanding Teacher” in the MRU Faculty of Arts.

Selected Publications

Haney, Timothy J. (Forthcoming). Imagining Ecotopia: Risk and the Promise of Permaculture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Haney, Timothy J. (2025). “Denial and Misinformation in Defense of the Tar Sands: The Case of a Canadian Think Tank.” Sociological Forum 40(3): 373-385.

Haney, Timothy J. and Aulora Morrow. (2024).  “‘We’re Still on that Treadmill’: Class Privilege, Reflexivity, and the Disruptive Potential of Permaculture.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 35(2): 96-115.

Haney, Timothy J. and Kristen Barber. (2022). “The Extreme Gendering of COVID-19: Household Tasks and Division of Labor Satisfaction During the Pandemic.” Canadian Review of Sociology 59(s1): 26-47.

Haney, Timothy J. (2022). “Development, Responsibility, and the Creation of Urban Hazard Risk.” City and Community 22(1): 21-41.

Haney, Timothy J. (2022). “’Scientists Don’t Care about Truth Anymore’: The Climate Crisis and Rejection of Science in Canada’s Oil Country.” Environmental Sociology 8(1): 7-24.

McDonald-Harker, Caroline, Emilie Michelle Bassi, and Timothy J. Haney. (2022).  “'We Need to Do Something About This’: Children’s Post-Disaster Views on Climate Change and Environmental Crisis.” Sociological Inquiry  92(1): 5-33.

Haney, Timothy J. (2021). “Disrupting the Complacency: Disaster Experience and Emergent Environmentalism.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World  7: 1-17.

Haney, Timothy J. and Daran Gray-Scholz (2020). "Flooding and the New Normal: What is the Role of Gender in Experiences of Post-Disaster Ontological Security?" Disasters ​44(2): 262-284.

Haney, Timothy J. (2019). "Move Out or Dig In? Risk Awareness and Mobility Plans in Disaster-Affected Communities." Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 27(3): 224-236.

Haney, Timothy J (2018). “Paradise Found? The Emergence of Social Capital, Place Attachment, and Civic Engagement After Disaster.” International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters 36(2): 97-119.

Haney, Timothy J. and Caroline McDonald-Harker (2017). "'The River Is Not the Same Anymore': Environmental Risk and Uncertainty in the Aftermath of the High River, Alberta Flood." Social Currents 4(6): 594-612.

Milnes, Travis and Timothy J. Haney (2017). "'There's Always Winners and Losers': Traditional Masculinity, Resource Dependence, and Post-Disaster Environmental Complacency." ​Environmental Sociology 3(3): 260-273.

Grants an Awards

  • MRU Distinguished Faculty Award, 2023
  • Outstanding Teacher Award, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, 2022
  • "The Ethics, Practice, Activism, and Resilience Potential of Permaculture." Insight Development Grant Program, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, 2020-2022 ($59,240).
  • Outstanding Scholar Award, Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, 2016
  • "Evacuation Decisions, Displacement, and Network Activation During the 2013 Calgary Flood." Insight Grant Program, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, 2014-2018. ($102, 774)
  • “The Effects of Environmental Disasters on the Family: Communicating, Coping, and Caring Among Families Impacted by the 2013 High River, Alberta Floods." (with Co-PI Caroline McDonald-Harker). Partnership Development Grant Program, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, 2014-2017 ($165,339).