Colloquium Speaker - Dr. Kristina Brant / Penn State University

Join UGA Sociology on February 27th as we welcome Dr. Kristina Brant (Penn State University) for her talk titled: "The Impacts of Severe Floods on Substance Use in Rural Appalachia"

In this talk, Kristina will present her current research on the impacts of severe floods on substance use-related harms. When conducting ethnographic fieldwork in rural Eastern Kentucky in 2021, Kristina witnessed the first of three severe floods to hit the region in a span of just four years. These initial observations led to the design of a mixed methods study several years later investigating the association between severe floods and opioid overdose mortality. Drawing on opioid overdose death data and severe storm event data, her team finds that severe floods in rural Appalachia lead to a significant increase in county-level overdose death rates that persists for a decade post-flood. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the counties most impacted by Eastern Kentucky’s recent floods, we identify the mechanisms by which floods impact long-term overdose mortality and the reasons why people who use(d) drugs remain so vulnerable to flooding time after time. We also point to the ways that providers have sought to mitigate these negative impacts, providing insight on disaster preparedness strategies for other rural communities. Kristina will also highlight a community partnership stemming from this research. With the regional organization Fahe, recovery housing organizations in West Virginia, and collaborators in Architecture and Engineering, Kristina is engaged in an effort to co-design climate-resilient recovery housing for use in rural Appalachia.

Dr. Brant's Biography:

Kristina Brant is an Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology at Penn State University. Relying on qualitative and community-engaged research methods, her work considers how rural geographies interact with social and structural factors to amplify health disparities for vulnerable populations. Much of her work focuses on how criminal legal involvement, child welfare involvement, social networks, and local economic opportunity shape experiences with substance use disorder in rural Appalachia. With Penn State Extension, Kristina leads the Substance Use Education and Relatives as Parents Program teams, working with community organizations to provide resources to people with substance use disorders and kinship families.

Her work has been published in numerous sociology and substance use journals, such as American Sociological Review and International Journal of Drug Policy. My projects have been funded by USDA NIFA, NIH, NSF, and the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.

(credit: https://aese.psu.edu/directory/kmb8133)