Biography

Robert Futrell specializes in social movements and social change, environmental sociology, urban sustainability, and science and technology. His environmental scholarship focuses on sustainability, climate change, and urban life in the United States' desert Southwest. His current social movement scholarship focuses on the cultural and organizational dynamics of social movement persistence and political extremism.

His co-authored book, American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate (2015, Rowman & Littlefield) explains white supremacy in the U.S. He is also a co-author of Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can Be Stopped (2024, Routledge), which explains how white supremacist extremism endures, the varied forms it takes, its relationship with systemic racism, and what to do about it.

Futrell's research has been published in outlets such as Social Problems, Sociological Quarterly, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Science, Technology, & Human Values, and the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, among others.