New Book - Climate Justice and the University: Shaping a Hopeful Future for All (Hopkins University Press, forthcoming in 2024)
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 have untapped potential to advance social justice and reduce climate injustices. However, universities are not yet structured to accelerate social change for the public good. This book 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 transformative vision for how higher education can accelerate the shift toward a more equitable, healthy, and hopeful future for all.
Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy (Island Press, 2020)
The climate crisis is a crisis of leadership. Transformation to a renewable-based society requires leaders who connect social justice to climate and energy. During the Trump era, connections among white, male power; environmental destruction; and fossil fuel dependence have become more conspicuous. The inadequate and ineffective framing of climate change as a narrow, isolated, discrete problem to be “solved” by technical solutions is failing. The dominance of technocratic, white, male perspectives on climate and energy has inhibited investments in social innovations. With new leadership and diverse voices, we can strengthen climate resilience, reduce growing inequities, and advance racial and economic justice.
Reviews of “Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist, Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy”
“Diversifying Power is a radical book, a call to action for restructuring society in response to these crises” - Jane K. Brundage, Resilience.org
“I have scoured the bookshelves for books that bring together climate and race. I didn’t find any……… This, however, is the first time I’ve seen the topics specifically linked” - Jeremy Williams, The Earthbound Report
“The book inspires readers to take action, get involved and join together to address the climate crisis” Sustainability: The Journal of Record.
Featured in Yale Climate Connections Top Books that show empowering women is climate action. March 2023.
Co-author of Chapter on What About Geoengineering? In Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book (Penguin Random House, 2022)
Co-author of Chapter on Leveraging Urban Climate Action for Transformative Social Justice in Urban Climate Justice (U of Georgia Press, 2023)
Chapter on Feminist, Antiracist Values for Climate Justice: Moving beyond Climate Isolationism. In Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities. (Eds J, Engle, J Agyeman, & T. Chung-Tiam-Fook). Open Access (Routledge, 2022)
Co-author on Sharing in Future Electric Energy Systems. In B. Heydari, O. Ergun, R. Dyal-Chand, & Y. Bart (Eds.), Reengineering the Sharing Economy: Design, Policy and Regulation. Cambridge University Press, 2023. Open Access.
Co-author of chapter on A Feminist Lens on Energy Democracy. In Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy (Eds) A, Feldpausch-Parker, D. Endres, TR Peterson, & S. Gomez. Routledge 2022.
Co-author of chapter on Promises of Geoengineering After Neoliberalism. In Has it Come to This? The Promises and Perils of Geoengineering on the Brink. (Eds) JP Sapinski, HJ Buck, & A Malm. Rutgers University Press, 2020
Co-author of chapter on Technological Optimism in Climate Mitigation: The Case of Carbon Capture and Storage In The Oxford Handbook of Energy & Society. (Eds) DJ Davidson and M Gross. Oxford University Press 2018.
Author on Accelerating Energy Transformation Requires A Commitment to Ending Fossil Fuel Investment In Mike Hulme (Ed), Contemporary Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer. Routledge, 2020.
Smart Grid (R)Evolution: Electric Power Struggles (Cambridge University Press, 2015) co-authored with Elizabeth J. Wilson & Tarla Rai Peterson
The term “smart grid” has become a catch-all phrase to represent the potential benefits of a revamped and more sophisticated electricity system that can fulfill several societal expectations related to enhanced energy efficiency and sustainability. Smart grid promises to enable improved energy management by utilities and by consumers, to provide the ability to integrate higher levels of variable renewable energy into the electric grid, to support the development of microgrids, and to engage citizens in energy management. However, it also comes with potential pitfalls, such as increased cybersecurity vulnerabilities and privacy risks. Although discussions about smart grid have been dominated by technical and economic dimensions, this book takes a sociotechnical systems perspective to explore critical questions shaping energy system transitions. It will be invaluable for advanced students, academic researchers, and energy professionals in a wide range of disciplines, including energy studies, environmental and energy policy, environmental science, sustainability science, and electrical and environmental engineering.