J. Carlee Purdum is an assistant professor in the department of sociology at the University of Houston and a faculty affiliate of UH Population Health and the Hurricane Resilience Research Center. Professor Purdum's research interests include vulnerable populations, organizational decision making, rural resilience, emergency management and public health in disasters. Her work explores how prisons and incarcerated persons are impacted by hazards and disasters (extreme heat, hurricanes/storms, wildfires, toxic exposures, COVID19, etc.). Additionally she focuses on organizational decision-making and behavior in emergency response and management and the implications for both emergency management and public health planning and policy.

Research Interests

• Social Vulnerability
• Rural Resilience
• Organizational Decision-Making
• Emergency Management
• Public Health and Disasters

Selected Publications

Purdum, J. Carlee, Benika Dixon, Amite Dominick. 2024. Punishment and Survival - Incarcerated Persons' Experiences with Extreme Heat in Texas Prisons, Disaster Prevention and Management, 33(6):30-42.

Breen, Kyle, Michelle Meyer, Sarah Becker, J. Carlee Purdum, Stuart Nolan. “Volunteer motivations in civilian volunteer search and rescue organizations.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 111:104688.

Purdum, J. Carlee. 2023. “‘The Volunteering Days is Gone’: All‐Hazard Incarcerated Firefighters and Rural Disinvestment.” Rural Sociology, 88(2):312-336.

Meyer, Michelle Annette, Mason Alexander-Hawk, J. Carlee Purdum, Haley Yelle, Jordan Vick, Adrian Rodriguez, Saul Romero, Kenneth Anderson Taylor. 2023. “Resilience in recovery? Understanding the extent, structure, and operations of nonprofits meant to address disaster survivors’ unmet needs.” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 52(4):979-1005.

Chmutina, Ksenia, Jason von Meding, Darien Alexander Williams, Jamie Vickery, and Carlee Purdum. 2023. “From pity to fear: security as a mechanism for (re)production of vulnerability.” Disasters 47(3):546-562.

Purdum, J. Carlee, Amite Dominic, Benika Dixon. “Managing Extreme Heat in Prisons.” Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, 23-01R.

Purdum, Carlee, Felicia Henry*, Sloan Rucker, Darien Alexander Williams*, Richard Thomas, Benika Dixon, and Fayola Jacobs. 2021. “No Justice, No Resilience: Prison Abolition as Disaster Mitigation in an Era of Climate Change.” Environmental Justice 14(6):418-425.

Purdum, J. Carlee and Michelle Meyer. 2020 “Prison Labor Throughout the Life Cycle of Disasters.” Risk, Hazards, and Crisis in Public Policy. 11(3): 296-319.

Purdum, J. Carlee. 2020. “Rehabilitation or Exploitation? Incarcerated Firefighters in North Carolina.” Carolina Planning Journal.

Purdum, J. Carlee. 2019. “Hazardous or vulnerable? Prisoners and emergency planning in the U.S.” Emerging Voices in Natural Hazards Research. Edited by Fernando Rivera. Oxford, United Kingdom: Butterworth-Heinemann. 

Meyer, Michelle, Brant Mitchell, J. Carlee Smith, Kyle Breen, Robbie Iles. 2018.“Previous hurricane evacuation decisions and future evacuation intentions among residents of southeast Louisiana.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 31: 1231-1244. 

Meyer, Michelle, J. Carlee Purdum, John Aggrey*, Kyle Breen*, Danequa Forrest*, Cristian Nunez*, Walter Gillis Peacock. 2018   “Perspectives from Nonprofit Organizations on Education and Training Needs for Disaster Recovery.” Journal of Emergency Management. 17(3): 225-238.