Professor

About

Biography

In broad terms my research, teaching and practice are integrated around the social governance of the world political economy in the areas of labor and the environment, with particular attention to power, (in)equality and (in)justice, social divisions of labor, and just transitions. My work programmatically fuses academic research with political practice. My most recent book is Just Transitions: Promise and Contestation (Cambridge University Press, 2023). I coedited The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies (2021, with Nora Räthzel and David Uzzell) and currently coediting a special issue of Environmental Politics on Planetary Justice. I am pursuing work on just transitions with the Just Transition Research Collaborative (UNRISD), The Just Transition and Care Initiative, and the research group of the Just Transition Listening Project. With respect to ecosocial justice I am a founder and co-direct the Center for Environmental Justice at Colorado State University and  co-convene the Planetary Justice Task Force of the Earth System Governance Project. With respect to production and consumption I participate in the Political Economy Working Group of the Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production of Knowledge Action Network of Future Earth. I continue to pursue research on the environmental politics of labor unions, the labor politics of environmental organizations, global union organizations, systems of sustainable production and consumption and ‘hidden figures’ in global environmental and labor politics.

At the undergraduate level I teach international relations, international political economy, and green political economy with a focus on justice. I have also taught capstones on global labor politics and just transitions. At the graduate level I teach Politics of the Environment and Sustainability, Governance of the World Political Economy, Theories of International Relations, International Environmental Politics as well as special seminars on social regulation, green political economy and just transitions. The latter engage all scales.

First Generation Story

I am a first generation middle school graduate. My educational trajectory involved an unexpected transition from a subsistence economy village to an elite urban school, both in Greece. I then immigrated to the USA where I completed my education before coming to CSU in 1990. During my graduate student years I spent some time in France. Later on I spent extensive and formative time in Bolivia. As a result I have been exposed to a wide variety of social circumstances and relations - in countries significantly different from each other.

Courses

  • POLS532 Governance of the World Political Economy

    Syllabus

    This seminar examined various approaches to the organization and governance of the world political economy

  • POLS580 Transnational Social Regulation

    Syllabus

    This seminar examined various approaches towards a more democratic and equitable transnational governance with particular focus on environment and labor.

  • POLS692 Green Transitions? Just Transitions?

    Syllabus

    An exploration of the emergence, diffusion, politics and applications of just transitions analysis

  • POLS462, Globalization, Sustainability and Justice: Just Transitions

    Syllabus

    An upper level course exploring just green transitions. Another version of this course examines whether green transitions are also just.

  • POLS739 International Environmental Politics Seminar

    Syllabus

    A research seminar on international environmental politics