One major area of my work examines the role of civil society participation in climate change politics. My book based on this research, titled Networks in Contention: The Divisive Politics of Global Climate Change, was published by Cambridge University Press in March 2015. I ask, first, how civil society organizations make decisions about what forms of collective action they will use to try to influence their targets, and second, what consequences their decisions have for climate change policy-making. This book received the 2015 Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association's Political Networks Section, the 2016 Levine Prize for Best Book in Comparative Administration and Public Policy from the International Political Science Association, the 2016 Don K. Price Award for the Best Book in Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics from the American Political Science Association, and the 2016 Lynton Keith Caldwell Award for Best Book in Environmental Politics and Policy in the past three years from the American Political Science Association (co-recipient). Related work has been published in Global Environmental Politics, Environmental Politics, and in the British Journal of Political Science. A Methods Appendix describing the data collection and analysis for this piece can be found here.
I also conduct research concerning the politics of sustainable development. This work (co-authored with Lucia Seybert) employs content analysis of state speeches to empirically identify fault lines in international debates about the norm of sustainable development. The project codebook can be found here. I have also examined the politics of decarbonization in the oil and gas sector (with Jessica Green, Thomas Hale, and Paasha Mahdavi). Work from this project has been published in Review of International Political Economy and Global Environmental Politics. Additionally, I have a longstanding interest in transnational social movements and non-governmental organizations. I have previously conducted research on the politics of the global justice movement in the United States and Europe with Sidney Tarrow, as well as the American and transnational dimensions of peace activism.
Currently, I am working on two research projects. The first is a book project (co-authored with Sarah Bush) that examines the creation and mission content of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) based in the United States. Despite INGOs' practical and theoretical importance, scholars have given little systematic attention to when INGOs are founded and the purposes for which INGOs are created. This project combines theory from multiple disciplines to enhance knowledge of organizational creation, examining INGOs over time and across different sectors, including democracy promotion, environmental conservation, global health, and humanitarian relief. This work is support by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Related work has been published in Environmental Politics and International Studies Quarterly.
I am also working on a project concerning protest around coal-fired power plants. Public opposition to coal in some locations – including sites in India, Indonesia, and the United States – has become an important factor in project development. In other places, support for coal is more widespread. This project explains variation in public opposition to proposed coal-fired power plants by drawing on project-level data and original global protest event analysis. This works is also supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. This work also builds on UMD's Global Coal Track project, which is supported by the Bloomberg Foundation.
I also conduct research concerning the politics of sustainable development. This work (co-authored with Lucia Seybert) employs content analysis of state speeches to empirically identify fault lines in international debates about the norm of sustainable development. The project codebook can be found here. I have also examined the politics of decarbonization in the oil and gas sector (with Jessica Green, Thomas Hale, and Paasha Mahdavi). Work from this project has been published in Review of International Political Economy and Global Environmental Politics. Additionally, I have a longstanding interest in transnational social movements and non-governmental organizations. I have previously conducted research on the politics of the global justice movement in the United States and Europe with Sidney Tarrow, as well as the American and transnational dimensions of peace activism.
Currently, I am working on two research projects. The first is a book project (co-authored with Sarah Bush) that examines the creation and mission content of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) based in the United States. Despite INGOs' practical and theoretical importance, scholars have given little systematic attention to when INGOs are founded and the purposes for which INGOs are created. This project combines theory from multiple disciplines to enhance knowledge of organizational creation, examining INGOs over time and across different sectors, including democracy promotion, environmental conservation, global health, and humanitarian relief. This work is support by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Related work has been published in Environmental Politics and International Studies Quarterly.
I am also working on a project concerning protest around coal-fired power plants. Public opposition to coal in some locations – including sites in India, Indonesia, and the United States – has become an important factor in project development. In other places, support for coal is more widespread. This project explains variation in public opposition to proposed coal-fired power plants by drawing on project-level data and original global protest event analysis. This works is also supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. This work also builds on UMD's Global Coal Track project, which is supported by the Bloomberg Foundation.