Research Groups


American Environmental Justice Politics, Policy, and Ethics

The American Environmental Justice Politics, Policy, and Ethics Research Group is focused on uncovering ecological injustices in the United States accentuated by the rise of neo-liberalism and corporate-led globalization

Climate Justice

The Climate Justice Research Group is devoted to exploring the national, international, and intergenerational justice dimensions of climate change and climate policy

Environmental Justice and Emerging Technologies

This project evaluates emerging technologies–particularly biotechnology/genomics, nanotechnology, and information technology, but also neurotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence–from the perspectives of environmental justice, and explores their implications for environmental justice communities and movements

Farm Workers and Environmental Justice

Description to come soon

Globalization and Environmental Justice

The Globalization and Environmental Justice Research Group is focused on uncovering the manner in which the worsening ecological crisis in the global South is directly related to a global system of economic and environmental stratification

Latin American Environmental Policy

The Latin American Environmental Policy Research Group is devoted to examining the way in which neo-liberal capitalist development in Latin America exacerbates ecological problems and environmental injustices

Lead Poisoning, Chemicals Trespassing, and Pinkwashing

The Project on Chemical Trespass and Pinkwashing examines the connections between pinkwashing, the large number of harmful chemicals now within our bodies and the environment, and the rising rates of cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, and many other diseases

New England Environmental Justice

The New England Environmental Justice Research Group is focusing on uncovering the social disparities that present themselves when looking at the placement of ecological and human health problems within New England

Palm Oil

Description to come soon

Philanthropy and Environmental Justice

The Philanthropy and Environmental Justice Research Group is devoting to forging more effective partnerships between the environmental justice movement (EJM) and the philanthropic community

Polluter-Industrial Complex

The Polluter-Industrial Complex Project analyzes the many different dimensions of corporate America’s unrelenting assault on the ecology and environmental justice movements. In order to rollback environmental regulation, and to hold the emerging environmental justice movement in check, polluting industries are engaged in a series of maneuvers designed to colonize and restructure the state in its favor – to establish a system of “cooperation” among corporate polluters and the United States government at all levels.  Our research is focused on the processes by which: (1) business-friendly political candidates are selected and financially supported; (2) officials aligned with industry are appointed to administer key government agencies, including those relating to environmental protection; (3) corporate lobbyists beholden to the polluter-industrial complex are granted extraordinary influence in the halls of government; (4) a vast policy-making infrastructure favorable to environmentally-destructive companies is systematically utilized by both major political parties to rollback ecological protection; and (5) the corruption of independent scientific investigation of environmental problems by corporate polluters. Together, these processes constitute a network of mechanisms that establish and maintain domination of the state by corporate elites, particularly those associated with ecologically destructive companies. It is the hegemony of polluter-industrial complex which is ultimately responsible for the erosion of environmental justice in the United States.