Research
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Trevor's active research investigates three core issues: (1) media representations and public experience of sea level rise in a region that is both uniquely vulnerable to climate change and one of the most military-dependent metropolitan areas in the United States, (2) how mainstream Environmental Psychology engages with the concept of nature, and the implications of this engagement for the psychology of the ecological crisis, and (3) the potential for a decolonial Africa-centering psychology of the ecological crisis. He is developing these projects through the Environment & Psychology Research Group at Norfolk State University.
EPRG is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research group interested in the mutual constitution of psychological experience and our everyday environments.
We are located in the Department of Psychology at Norfolk State University.
Two related foundational insights guide the scholarship of EPRG: (1) our habits of mind and ways of being are not "just natural," but rather represent the product of our engagement with cultural ecologies that have been shaped to reflect and promote particular sets of beliefs and desires, and (2) everyday spaces of human existence are not "neutral," but instead reflect the charged, psychological residue of prior (and ongoing), culturally-constituted human activity. Departing from traditional interactionist frameworks of social and environmental psychology, EPRG approaches human psychology as inherently dialectical and deeply historical.
Though the specific research projects and interests of EPRG vary, we are generally interested in understanding how our habits of mind and ways of being interact with the ecological crisis and matters of environmental (in)justice.
Publications
Manuscripts & projects in prep.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
Peer-reviewed Book Chapters
Lies, T. S., Schmitt, H. J., Omar, S. M., & Sarmal, A. (In prep). Denaturalizing ‘nature’: A critical scoping review of nature-focused research in environmental psychology. Invited special issue submission.
Lies, T. S., Omar, S. M., & Adams, G. (In prep). Another shade of green: Toward a decolonial Africa-centering psychology of the ecological crisis. Invited Forum Submission.
Lies, T. S., Harris, T. T., & Kinder, J. (In prep). Constructing Climate Vulnerability: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Reports on Sea Level Rise in Hampton Roads.
Omar, S. M., Lies, T. S., Hakim, N. (Invited resubmission). Contextualizing the Globalization/Coloniality of Psychology. In: Bettache, K. (ed) Research Handbook on the Psychology of Globalization. Edward Elgar Publishers
Schmitt, H. J., Lies, T. S. (In prep). Abolitionist Environmental Psychology. In: Blanchette, F & Pham, M.D. (eds) Psychology of and for Abolition.
Schmitt, H. J, Schwartzman, L., & Lies, T. S. (Under review). “What’s our color? Poor!”: Exploring Race & Justice Evasion in Environmental Exposure Frames.
Omar, S. M., Lies, T. S., Morin, H., Russin, E., Roennengart, A., & Adams, G. (In prep). (Hegemonic) Conceptions of Environmentalism: Wilderness Preservation, Ecomodernism, & Racism-evasion.
Miller, J., Lies, T. S., & Crandall, C. (Under review). Tuning Arguments to the Audience: Selecting Justifications to Suit Audience Prejudice.
Grants & Awards
2025 Grants in Aid - Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
2025 Grants in Aid - Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Constructing Climate Vulnerability: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Media Reports on Sea Level Rise in Hampton Roads – $2000
LIES CV (2).docxPage updated
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