I am a Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). As a macrosociologist working in the areas of environmental sociology and global political economy, I use a range of quantitative methods to conduct research on the human dimensions of global and regional environmental change, with a primary focus on the societal causes and consequences of the climate crisis. I also have longstanding interests in the political economy of development, inequality, and population health disparities.
Here at UBC I'm the Founding Director of the Climate & Society Lab (CSL). I am also a Research Fellow at Vilnius University, and Founding Coeditor of the journal Sociology of Development. Prior to coming to UBC in summer 2023, I was a Professor and Chair in the Department of Sociology and a Professor of Environmental Studies at Boston College, and Founding Director of the Global Environmental Sociology Lab.
My published work appears in a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals, including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Sociological Theory, Social Problems, Sociological Science, Social Science Research, International Sociology, Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, Environmental Research Letters, Science of the Total Environment, Sustainability Science, Climatic Change, Energy Policy, Ecological Economics, Global Environmental Politics, Energy Research & Social Science, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, SSM - Population Health, Health & Place, World Development, and Conservation Biology. I'm coauthor of Super Polluters: Tackling the World’s Largest Sites of Climate-Disrupting Emissions, published by Columbia University Press, and I've coedited multiple volumes, handbooks, and journal special issues.
I'm the 2020 recipient of the Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Environmental Sociology for my "innovation, publication, and service" in the field of environmental sociology. I was an appointed author for the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Fifth National Climate Assessment, which was completed in 2023, and an appointed member of the U.S. National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (resigned from council after moving to UBC).
Prospective graduate students: please feel free to contact me, especially if your research interests are aligned with mine. My former PhD students have secured postdocs, tenure-track faculty positions, and applied research positions at various institutions and organizations throughout the world, including Boston College, Boston University, Drexel University, New Mexico State University, Oklahoma State University, Pennsylvania State University, Singapore Management University, Southern Illinois University, United States Census Bureau, University College Dublin, Utah State University, and Washington State University.