Professor Laura Pulido
Laura Pulido, a leading scholar on race, environmental justice, and cultural memory, has been appointed as Centennial Professor to the LSE Department of Geography and Environment and the Phelan United States Centre.
She will collaborate with both the Department of Geography and Environment and the Phelan United States Centre to conduct research on climate refusal amongst the far-right in the United States.
Professor Pulido is the Collins Chair and Professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies and Geography at the University of Oregon. She has published six books, including her most recent work with Jordan Camp to posthumously complete Clyde Woods’s Development Drowned and Reborn: The Blues and Bourbon Restoration in Post-Katrina New Orleans (University of Georgia, 2017). Her honours include the Cullum Geographical Medal from the American Geographical Society, Distinguished Scholarship Honours and the Presidential Achievement Award from the Association of American Geographers, and Ford and Guggenheim fellowships.
Commenting on the appointment, Professor Pulido said: “I am very much looking forward to engaging with the work of the LSE Department of Geography and Environment and the Phelan United States Centre. During my time at LSE I plan to contribute to public lectures, visit the Writers Meets Readers workshop, meet with students, and contribute to blogs and podcasts. I am very excited to work with the Social Life of Climate Change research group, which frames debates in the social sciences of climate change and the environment with interdisciplinary discussion – this is exactly how I envisage the constructive approach to combatting climate change.”
Professor Claire Mercer, Deputy Head of Department (Research), said: “The Department of Geography and Environment is delighted to welcome Laura Pulido as a Centennial Professor. Professor Pulido has long pursued agenda-setting research at the intersection of geography and critical ethnic studies, and her current work on racism, nationalism, climate change and political activism resonates with the department’s research on socio-spatial and environmental justice. She is a committed scholar and activist, and we are excited to discuss her work and learn from her while she is with us at LSE.”
Professor Peter Trubowitz, Phelan United States Centre Director, said: “We are delighted that Professor Pulido will be joining the Phelan US Centre as a Centennial Professor. She is a leading scholar, teacher, and reformer on issues of racial equity, economic inclusiveness, and climate change. She will add great value to LSE, and the larger London community that looks to the School for insight and inspiration. We look forward to working with her.”