Nominees for the Outreach Committee 2024

The Outreach Committee has four officers, serving two-year terms. It is responsible for getting the word out about ISA-ESS to a broader audience. In particular, it seeks ensure that graduate students, junior scholars, and scholars from underrepresented populations are aware of and find benefit from becoming a part of the ESS. The committee is tasked with regularly reaching out to groups of people who might not know about or be active in ESS to provide information about the benefits of participating. In addition, the committee seeks to augment those benefits, by creating events, activities, and services (such as special panels or other events at conferences or during the year) focused on mentoring and provision of other information or opportunities to a broad community of ESS-related scholars and teachers. The committee also solicits and considers requests for whatever ESS budget is allocated to conduct ESS events at conferences outside of the main ISA conference, with an eye toward raising the profile of ESS.

Below are the bios for the positions in the Outreach Committee (2 positions/5 candidates):

Tabitha Benney: Dr. Tabitha M. Benney is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated faculty in the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program, Center on Global Change and Sustainability, Public Policy Program, and International Studies Program at the University of Utah. She is also a Research Fellow for the Earth Research Governance Network and Tribal Liaison for the U.S.-Canada Center on Climate-Resilient Western Interconnected Grid (WIRED). Dr. Benney’s interdisciplinary research is focused on inequality and the political economy of energy, climate, and air quality issues. She has served on the ESS Harold & Margaret Sprout Award Committee (2017-2019) and the ESS Nominating Committee (2015-2017).

Anthony Calacino: I study environmental and climate politics, asking questions about public opinion, institutions, and state power. I usually research Global South contexts, and I have spent much time in and researching Brazil and Mexico. Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) where I work on the Climate Vulnerability Project. I received my Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin in December 2023. From 2022-2023 I was the Co-Leader of the Graduate Students in International Political Economy Group (GSIPE) in which we hold weekly webinars for junior scholars studying IPE. I engaged in outreach activities and helped lead the group to over 1000 members across the world. I would like to continue that outreach as part of the Outreach Committee.

Kariuki Kirigia: Kariuki Kirigia is an Assistant Professor within the School of the Environment and African Studies Centre at the University of Toronto. Kariuki’s research lies at the intersection of climate change, biodiversity conservation, land governance, food security, African epistemologies and pedagogies, and sustainability in Africa, and adopts engaged approaches to research sutured by partnerships with African indigenous organizations and communities. Dr. Kirigia is currently working on a book manuscript titled “Promises of Property: The Expansion of Capitalist Relations on an African Indigenous Frontier” and several collaborative research projects on climate change, biodiversity conservation, and land governance in Africa and North America. I am enthusiastic about becoming a member of the Outreach Committee for the ISA-ESS section in order to raise awareness about its significance and activities to a wide audience, with a particular emphasis on marginalized groups that have the potential to benefit from and contribute significantly to the ESS. I have a large network, particularly among African researchers and scholars conducting environmental research in Africa. I intend to use my participation in associations such as the Canadian Association for African Studies, the African Studies Association, and anthropological associations to disseminate knowledge about the ESS and urge new members to join. I plan to use my experience arranging panels, roundtables, and social events to foster active participation in ESS activities and raise awareness among the greater ISA-ESS community.

Muhammad S. Rahman: I am a Senior Lecturer in the International Relations Study Program (IRSP) at the President University of Indonesia. I received my Ph.D. from the Graduate Program in International Studies (GPIS) of Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, USA, under the Fulbright Scholar Program. My research interest focuses on two themes: a) how religious communities respond to/reshape globalization and b) global forest governance. At President University, I enjoy teaching courses: Globalization & Social Change, US Foreign Policy, SDG15 & Forest Politics, and Environmental Issues in IR to undergraduate students. Research on global environmental politics (GEP) in Indonesia is still in a very early stage even though energy policy, forest sector practices, and climate change issues are intricately linked in Indonesia. I want to be part of the Outreach Committee of EES to strengthen the study of GEP in Indonesia, reach more diverse academia from the South, and also channel their voices to this organization.

Marlene Terstiege: I am a third year PhD Student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. My research focuses largely on global environmental politics. I am currently involved in research projects on the 100 Resilient Cities initiative and on the political economy of private auditors in transnational sustainability governance. In my dissertation, I will ask why space for climate activism is narrowing globally. Having served as social convenor and area rep in our department, I have experience with organising people and promoting their events and research. In addition, as an international student coming to Canada I had to connect with entirely new audiences and unknown people from scratch and I truly enjoyed it. It would be such a pleasure to work on the outreach committee and support the environmental studies section’s endeavours at connecting, networking, and supporting scholars researching similar topics.

For information on current officers and ESS governance, please visit: https://www.isanet.org/ISA/Sections/ESS/Leadership