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Faculty Experts

Mimi Sheller, PhD

Professor, Department of Sociology, Director, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy

College of Arts and Sciences

Expertise:

sociology

sustainability

Contact:

mimi.b.sheller@drexel.edu

215.571.3652

Sheller's research interests include sustainable mobility and mobility justice, caribbean studies and mobilities, and tracing the histories and forecasting the futures of cultures of mobility.
Sheller holds a continuing appointment as senior research fellow in the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University (UK) and is founding co-editor of the international journal Mobilities. She is on the international editorial boards of the journals Cultural Sociology, and African and Black Diaspora.

She is the author of the books Consuming the Caribbean (2003), which explores the relations of production and consumption in the transatlantic world from the colonial era until today; Democracy After Slavery: Black Publics and Peasant Radicalism in Haiti and Jamaica (2000); and recently completed Citizenship from Below: Caribbean Agency and Modern Freedom (forthcoming, Duke University Press). She is also co-editor with John Urry of Mobile Technologies of the City (2006), Tourism Mobilities(2004), and a special issue of Environment and Planning A on "Materialities and Mobilities."
 

For news media inquiries, contact Emily Storz at els332@drexel.edu, 215.895.2705 (office) or 609.351.3592 (cell). 

In the News

  • Before Rosa Parks: The Fight for Philly Transit Equity and the Black Women on the Frontlines

    Mimi Sheller, PhD, a professor and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in a Feb. 5 WHYY.org story, that also ran on WITF.org (NPR - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania), about the racial hierarchy that continues today in Philadelphia’s public spaces and transportation. 

  • Philadelphia’s Transit Authority Rethinks Regional Rail

    Mimi Sheller, PhD, a professor and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in a Jan. 26 Philadelphia Inquirer article about the future of SEPTA regional rail with fewer commuters. The article was picked up on Jan. 27 by Governing.

  • Without Commuters, What Will Happen To Septa Regional Rail?

    Mimi Sheller, PhD, a professor and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in a Jan. 26 Philadelphia Inquirer article about the future of SEPTA regional rail with fewer commuters.

  • SEPTA Regional Rail Is Coming Back, but Many of Its Suburban Riders Are Still Working From Home

    Mimi Sheller, PhD, a professor and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in a June 29 Philadelphia Inquirer article about the return of SEPTA regional rail and the reduction of riders as many continue to work remotely. 

  • COVID-19 Reveals a Path Forward on Climate Change

    Richardson Dilworth, PhD; Scott Knowles, PhD; and Mimi Sheller, PhD, professors in the College of Arts & Sciences; and Franco Montalto, PhD, a professor in the College of Engineering, co-authored a post for American Scientist's "Macroscope" blog on May 12 about how the pandemic might be showing us a path toward stemming climate change. 

  • Young Philadelphians driving less, raising kids outside of 'car culture'

    Mimi Sheller, PhD, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in a WHYY/Newsworks.org story on Dec. 11 about young Philadelphians choosing to be car-less.

  • Changing Attitudes Toward Driving and the Automobile

    Dr. Mimi Sheller, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, was interviewed on WHYY’s “Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane” on September 26 about changing attitudes towards cars and driving.

  • The End of Car Culture

    Dr. Mimi Sheller, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, was quoted in a New York Times story on June 29 about the end of car culture.

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    From Coca-Cola cans to Apollo 11 to the Empire State Building, aluminum can be found almost anywhere you look. But are there unseen costs associated with this ubiquitous metal? In a new book, Drexel University’s Mimi Sheller, PhD, explores how aluminum enabled a high-speed, gravity-defying American modernity even as other parts of the world paid the price in environmental damage and political turmoil.

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