Texas Proves Anti-Racist, Feminist Policies Must Be Applied vs. Climate Change

Claudia Cragg speaks here for @KGNU with Dr. Jennie C. Stephens, @jenniecstephens, the Director of the and the Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy  at  in Boston, Massachusetts.  She is also the Director for Strategic Research Collaborations at Northeastern University’s  and is affiliated with the , the department of  and the department of . Her research, teaching, and community engagement focus on integrating social justice, feminist, and anti-racist perspectives into climate and energy resilience, social and political aspects of the renewable energy transition, reducing reliance on fossil fuels, energy democracy, gender in energy and climate, and climate and energy justice. Her unique trans-disciplinary approach integrates innovations in social science and public policy with science and engineering to promote social justice, reduce inequalities and redistribute power (electric power, economic power and political power). Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy to be published by  in 2020, she argues that effectively addressing climate change requires diversifying leadership, redistributing wealth and power, and moving beyond mainstream male-dominated technocratic solutions to climate change. Throughout her career she has explored institutional and cultural innovation in the energy sector, including gender diversity, energy democracy, and technological optimism as well as the “usability” of climate science in climate resilience efforts. Professor Stephens was a 2015-2016  fellow, and her book “) explores social and cultural debates about energy system change (co-authored with Wilson & Peterson). Before coming to Northeastern, Professor Stephens was on the faculty at the University of Vermont (2014-2016) and Clark University (2005-2014). She did post-doctoral research at Harvard’s Kennedy School and she has taught courses at Tufts, Boston University, and MIT. She earned her PhD at the  in Environmental Science & Engineering and her BA at Harvard University in Environmental Science and Policy.