February 11, 2013 – "Climate Change and Social Action"
An HUCE panel discussion
What is the role of social action in confronting climate change? What role can a grassroots environmental movement play in sustaining long-term action? What can those concerned with climate change learn from other social movements?
Featuring panelists:
Stephen Ansolabehere, Professor of Government, Harvard University Department of Government. Professor Ansolabehere studies elections, democracy, and the mass media, and his current research projects include campaign finance, congressional elections, and party politics. His articles have appeared in The American Political Science Review, The British Journal of Politics, The Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, The Quill, and Chance.
Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School. He was a previous Director of Organizing for the United Farm Workers, where he gained experience in union, political, and community organizing. During the 1980s, he worked with grassroots groups to develop new organizing programs and designed innovative voter mobilization strategies for local, state, and national electoral campaigns. Professor Ganz now teaches, researches, and writes on leadership, organization, and strategy in social movements, civic associations, and politics.
Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard Business School in the General Management and Strategy units and Co-Director of the Business and Environment Initiative. Professor Henderson is also a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her work explores how organizations respond to large-scale technological shifts, most recently in regard to energy and the environment.
Andrew Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, a position that holds joint appointments at the Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources & Environment. Within this role, he also serves as Director of the Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise. He is a leader in using organizational, network and strategic analyses to assess the implications of environmental issues for business, and has published over a dozen books and over ninety articles and book chapters on the topic.
Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. Professor Skocpol's work covers a broad spectrum of topics including both comparative politics and American politics. Her research focuses on U.S. social policy and civic engagement in American democracy, including changes since the 1960s. She has recently launched new projects on the development of U.S. higher education and on the transformations of U.S. federal policies in the Obama era. In 2007, she was awarded the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for her "visionary analysis of the significance of the state for revolutions, welfare, and political trust, pursued with theoretical depth and empirical evidence."
Moderated By:
Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. He studies climate and climate change over the broadest range of Earth history. He is particularly interested in how information on climate change from the geologic past can lead to better understanding of anthropogenic climate change in the future. In addition to his work on geochemistry and climatology, Schrag studies energy technology and policy, including carbon capture and storage and low-carbon synthetic fuels. He currently serves on President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Among various honors, he is the recipient of the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union and a MacArthur Fellowship.