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Carolina Distinguished Professor
Director, Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1976
Department of Geography
Callcott, Room 312
Columbia, SC 29208
Phone: (803) 777-1590 Fax: (803) 777-4972
Email: scutter@sc.edu
Dr. Susan Cutter is a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Cutter is the Director of the University’s Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute. She received her B.A.
from California State University, Hayward and her M.A. and Ph.D. (1976) from the University of Chicago.
Her primary research interests are in the area of vulnerability science—what makes people and the places where
they live vulnerable to extreme events and how this vulnerability is measured, monitored, and assessed.
She has authored or edited twelve books, more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
Dr. Cutter has also led post-event field studies of the role of geographic information technologies in
rescue and relief operations in (September 11th World Trade Center attack) and studies of evacuation behavior
from Three Mile Island (1979), Hurricane Floyd (1999), and the Graniteville, SC train derailment and chlorine spill (2005).
Most recently (2006) she has led a Hurricane Katrina post-event field team to examine the geographic extent of storm surge
inundation along the Mississippi and Alabama coastline and its relationship to the social vulnerability of communities.
She has provided expert testimony to Congress on hazards and vulnerability and was a member of the US Army Corps of Engineers
IPET team evaluating the social impacts of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System in response to Hurricane Katrina.
Dr. Cutter serves on many national advisory boards and committees including those of National Research Council, the AAAS,
the National Science Foundation, the Natural Hazards Center, and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment.
She is also a co-principal investigator and member of the Executive Committee of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and
Responses to Terrorism (START)(a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence focused on the social and behavioral sciences).
She is an elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (1999), and past President of
the Association of American Geographers (2000). In 2006, Dr. Cutter was the recipient of the Decade of Behavior Research Award given
by a multidisciplinary consortium of more than 50 national and international scientific organizations in the social and behavioral sciences. Dr. Cutter is currently President of the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA).
Areas of Interest
Hazards, risk, and disasters
Vulnerability science
Environmental equality and inequality
Recent Publications
Schmidtlein, M. C., R. Deutsch, W. W. Piegorsch, and S. L. Cutter, 2008. “A Sensitivity Analysis of the Social Vulnerability Index,” Risk Analysis 28 (4):1099-1114.
Edmonds, A. E. and S. L. Cutter, 2008. Planning for pet evacuations during disasters, J. Homeland Security and Emergency Management 5 (1): Article 33 (18 pp.). Available at: http://www.bepress.com/jhsem/vol5/iss1/33
Burton, C. and S. L. Cutter, 2008. “Levee Failures and Social Vulnerability in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Area, California,” Natural Hazards Review 9(3): 136-149.
James, L. A. and S. L. Cutter, 2008. Flood hazards in the Central Valley of California. Natural Hazards Review 9 (3): 101-103.
Cutter, S. L. and C. Finch, 2008. “Temporal and Spatial Changes in Social Vulnerability to Natural Hazards,” Proceedings, National Academy of Sciences: 105(7):2301-2306.
Schmidtlein, M. C., S. L. Cutter, and C. Finch, 2008. “Disaster Declarations and Major Hazard Occurrences in the United States,” Professional Geographer 60 (1):1-14.
Piegorsch, W. W., S. L. Cutter, and F. Hardisty, 2007. “Benchmark Analysis for Quantifying Urban Vulnerability to Terrorist Incidents,” Risk Analysis 47 (6): 1411-1425.
Cutter, S.L., L. A. Johnson, C. Finch, and M. Berry, 2007. “The U.S. Hurricane Coasts: Increasingly Vulnerable?,” Environment 49 (7): 8-20.
Borden, K., M. C. Schmidtlein, C. Emrich, W. P. Piegorsch, and S. L. Cutter, 2007. “Vulnerability of US Cities to Environmental Hazards,” Journal of Homeland Security and Environmental Management 4(2): Article 5. Available at http://www.bepress.com/jhsem/vol4/iss2/5.
Boruff, B. J., and S. L. Cutter, 2007. “The Environmental Vulnerability of Caribbean Island Nations,” Geographical Review 97 (1): 24-45.
Mitchell, J. T., S. L. Cutter, and A. S. Edmonds, 2007. “Improving Shadow Evacuation Management: Case Study of the Graniteville, South Carolina chlorine spill,” Journal of Emergency Management 5(1): 28-34.
Gall, M., B. J. Boruff, and S. L. Cutter, 2007. “Assessing Flood Hazard Zones in the Absence of Digital Floodplain Maps: A Comparison of Alternative Approaches,” Natural Hazards Review 8(1):1-12.
Cutter, S.L.. 2006. Hazards, Vulnerability, and Environmental Justice. London and Sterling,
VA: Earthscan. 418 pp.
Cutter, S.L., C. T. Emrich, J. T. Mitchell, B. J. Boruff, M. Gall, M. C. Schmidtlein, C. G. Burton, and G. Melton, 2006.
"The Long Road Home: Race, Class, and Recovery from Hurricane Katrina," Environment 48(2): 8-20.
Cutter, S.L. and C. T. Emrich, 2006. "Moral Hazard, Social Catastrophe: The Changing Face of Vulnerability along the Hurricane Coasts,"
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 604: 102-112.
Cutter, S.L. and C. Emrich, 2005. "Are Natural Hazards and Disaster Losses in the U.S. Increasing?",
EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 86 (41), October 11, 2005: 381, 388-89.
Boruff, B. J., C. Emrich, and S.L. Cutter, 2005. "Hazard Vulnerability of U.S. Coastal Counties,"
Journal of Coastal Research 21 (5): 932-942.
Cutter, S.L., 2005. "Pragmatism and Relevance: A Response to Wolf R. Dombrowsky," in R.W. Perry and E. L. Quarantelli and (eds.),
What is a Disaster? New Answers to Old Questions. New York: Xlibris, pp.104-106.
Cutter, S.L., 2005. "Are We Asking the Right Question?" in R.W. Perry and E. L. Quarantelli and (eds.),
What is a Disaster? New Answers to Old Questions. New York: Xlibris, pp. 39-48.
Cutter, S.L., 2005. "Hazards Measurement," in K. Kempf-Leonard (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Measurement, Volume 2.
New York: Academic Press, pp. 197-202.
Nellis, M. D., J. Monk, and S.L. Cutter(eds.). 2004. Presidential Musing from the Meridian:
Reflections on the Nature of Geography by Past Presidents of the Association of American Geographers.
Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press. 276 pp.
Brunn, S. D., S.L. Cutter, and J. W. Harrington, Jr. (eds.), 2004. Geography and Technology. Dordrecht,
Boston, and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 613 pp.
Cutter, S.L., D. B. Richardson, and T. J. Wilbanks, 2004. "The Geographical Dimensions of Terrorism: Future Directions,"
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94(4): 1001-1002.
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Teaching
Geography of Disasters (GEOG 330)
Environmental Hazards (GEOG 530)
Seminar in Environmental Geography (GEOG 730)
Seminar in Political Geography (GEOG 735)
Advanced Seminar in Environmental Geography (GEOG 830)
Grad Supervision: 13 Ph.D. and 33 Masters completed
Current Grad Students
Kevin Borden, Ph.D. candidate
Christopher Burton, Ph.D. candidate
Eric Tate, Ph.D. candidate
Jennifer Webb, Ph.D. candidate
Ginni Melton, Master’s
Dan Morath, Master’s
Joanne Stevenson, Master’s
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