Benjamin Miller

millerb@speakeasy.net

EMPLOYMENT

September 2004 – present

            Senior Fellow, CUNY Institute for Urban Systems.

September 2002 – present

            Research Associate, Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University.

September 1998 - present

            Principal, CommunityCartography, Inc.;  Principal, Environmental Policy Services, LLC.

March 1996 - August 1998

            Deputy Director, New York City Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination.

January 1993 - February 1996

            Benjamin Miller, Inc., Environmental Policy Services

March l98l - December 1992

            New York City Department of Sanitation.

April l989 - December 1992, Director, Policy Planning,
January l985 - April l989, Director, Public Policy, Office of Resource Recovery.
March l98l - December l984, Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner, Office of Resource Recovery.

July l980 - February l98l

            Legislative Aide, The Council, City of New York.

September l976 - June l977

            Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Temple University.

EDUCATION

Columbia University, New York, NY

            Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology, l977 - l984.  President's Fellow.  Areas of specialization:  urban anthropology, environmental planning (coursework completed for Ph.D.).

Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

            M.A., Anthropology, l977.  Ethnographic film.

Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

            B.A., l975.  Anthropology/film production.

Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH

            Graduated l97l.  (1969-70, School Year Abroad, Rennes, France.)

PUBLICATIONS

Fat of the Land:  Garbage in New York, the Last Two Hundred Years,  NY:  Four Walls Eight Windows,  December, 2000.

“Why Not Fresh Kills?” Brown Fields Gray Waters: Restoring and Remediating Degraded Landscapes, Niall Kirkwood, ed. (proceedings of a conference at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Fall, 2001, forthcoming).

“Sanitation and Waste Disposal,” Encyclopedia of New York State, Syracuse, NY:  University of Syracuse Press (Spring, 2005).

 “The Waste Management Plan:  Approve It, But Improve It,” GothamGazette.com, 10-18-04 (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20041018/200/1153).

 “It’s Your Garbage.  Pay for It,” New York Times, 7-24-2003 (with Stephen Hammer).

“Landfill New York,” Celebrating Fresh Kills’ Closure, the catalogue for the exhibit at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY, 4-02

“A Second Life for the Fresh Kills Landfill After 9/11,” MetroPlanner, NY:  American Planning Association, 4-02.

“Reopen Fresh Kills:  Brilliant or Bone-Headed?,” New York Times, 4-14-02.

“City Needs to Reopen Fresh Kills,” Daily News, 3-5-02

“Put Our Garbage Back on Staten Island Now,” Newsday, 12-4-01.

“The Folly of Closing Fresh Kills,” Daily News, 1-5-01.

“A History of Waste,” GothamGazette.com, 11-27-00 (www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/62.miller.html).

"Fat of the Land:  New York's Waste," Journal of Social Research, Spring, 1998.

Modern Alchemy:  Materials Recovery Facilities in the New York Metropolitan Region, NY:  Environmental Defense Fund Publications, 1996.

"The Colonial Polo Club:  Class Processes in the Suburban-Rural Fringe," in Anthropology in the U.S., Leith Mullings, ed., NY:   Columbia University Press, l987.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Adjunct Professor, New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program, Fall, 2004

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Hunter College, Department of Planning and Urban Affairs, Fall, 2003

Visiting Professor, New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2002-2003

Acting Working Group Co-chair, Science and Urban Policy, New York Academy of Sciences, 2002-2003

Co-Coordinator, Geographic Information Systems and Mapping Operations (GISMO), 2001--2004