Her research focuses on history of mainstream and environmental justice ideology and activism, social movements and framing, and diversity in the environmental field. She participated in the landmark 1990 environmental justice conference at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment – Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards – and contributed a chapter to the book of the same name. She also helped to develop the environmental justice program at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment – the first such program in the country. She has recently completed two manuscripts. The first, which focuses on the rise of the urban environmental movement is entitled: Environment, Work and Recreation in American Cities: 1600s-1900s. Disorder, Inequality and Social Change is currently in press at Duke University. The second manuscript which analyzes the rise of the conservation movement is entitled: Outward Bound: Manliness, Wealth, Race and the Rise of the Environmental Movement. 1830s-1930s is in review at Cornell University Press also. Dr. Taylor is working on a third manuscript on minorities and the environment entitled: People of Color and the Environment: 1600s-1900s.
Professor Taylor is currently the Program Director for the Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative (MELDI). She has conducted a national study of minority and white students in university environmental programs to find out about their preparation for the environmental workforce, willingness to work in environmental organizations upon graduation, salary expectations, and whether they consider issues related to equity and diversity in the workplace relevant to their job satisfaction. As a corollary, Dr. Taylor has also conducting a parallel study of employees in environmental organizations to find out about their work experiences. In particular, she is interested in recruitment and retention, salary compensation, perceptions of equity and discrimination on the job, diversity, career development, and networking opportunities on the job. A third study has also been conducted among environmental organizations to find out about institutional factors relating to recruitment and retention of employees, the institution of mentoring programs, diversity efforts, employee review procedures, and the demographic characteristics of these organizations. These studies have been sponsored by the Joyce Foundation.
In 2005 Professor Taylor held a National Summit on Diversity in the Environmental Field at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment in Ann Arbor. Summary results of the afore-mentioned studies were unveiled at the Summit. Results from these studies have also been published in BioScience, Journal of Environmental Education, and Research in Social Problems and Public Policy. Several other articles are under review in scholarly environmental and social science journals.
Dr. Taylor is also conducting a fourth study that is closely related to those already mentioned above. She is working on a National Science Foundation-sponsored project that seeks to examine the status of minority faculty in university environmental departments. She conducted a survey of minority and white faculty in which she is trying to find out about recruitment, retention, promotion and tenure, career development, opportunities to collaborate with colleagues or take on leadership roles, networking, and mentoring. She convened an international Faculty Diversity and Environmental Justice Research Symposium at the University of Michigan in June 2007 to discuss diversity in the environmental field and the state of environmental justice research.
In fall 2005 Dr. Taylor spent the semester at Yale University as the Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar. In 2007 she was named to Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Educators.