Climate Justice and the University: Shaping a Hopeful Future for All

A radical exploration of how higher education can advance transformative climate justice.

Amid the worsening climate crisis and intensifying inequities, higher education can play a powerful role in addressing the intersecting crises facing humanity. Institutions of higher education hold untapped potential to advance social justice and reduce climate injustices. However, universities are not yet structured to accelerate social change for the public good. In Climate Justice and the University, Jennie Stephens reimagines the potential of higher education to advance human well-being and promote ecological health.

Drawing on over thirty years of experience working on the climate crisis within higher education, Stephens offers a provocative and pathbreaking vision of how higher education can accelerate the shift toward more equitable, healthy, and stable futures for all. Building on a US and European context, she integrates examples from the innovative landscape of transformative education initiatives around the world.

With climate chaos exacerbating instability of all kinds, reimagining the transformative power of higher education is hopeful and empowering. By inviting readers to collectively reimagine different priorities and structures within higher education, Stephens disrupts long-held assumptions about how universities advance learning and research, suggesting possibilities to shape a more equitable future for all.

Jennie C. Stephens is Professor of Climate Justice at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. She was a Radcliffe-Salata Climate Justice Fellow at Harvard University and the Dean's Professor of Sustainability Science and Policy at Northeastern University. She is the author of Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy.