Dr. Steven Rubin

Biography

Steven Rubin is a documentary photographer whose work highlights numerous critical contemporary issues such as health disparities, rural poverty, refugee migration, and the social and environmental impacts of energy development. Prior to joining Penn State, he worked for over a decade as a freelance photojournalist, traveling on assignments across the United States and around the world. He is a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in Northeast India and a recipient of several notable awards, including the Leica Medal of Excellence and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and the Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship. Rubin has also served as a Community Fellow at the Open Society Institute in Baltimore, where he co-directed 'Healing Images,' an innovative program providing digital cameras, instruction, and therapy for survivors of torture. His current projects investigate the rise of wind energy in the Midwest, as well as the precarious conditions faced by Burmese Chin refugees in India and the social and environmental impacts of Marcellus Shale gas development in Pennsylvania. His book, 'Shale Play – Poems and Photographs from Fracking Fields,' co-authored with documentary poet Julia Spicher Kasdorf, was published in August 2018.

Research Interests