» CU Political Scientist Steve Vanderheiden Joins CSTPR Faculty

The Center for Science and Technology Policy Research is pleased to welcome Steve Vanderheiden as a new faculty member.  Currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science here at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Professorial Fellow with the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) in Canberra, Australia, Vanderheiden is very excited to join CSTPR.  “Although I have known and worked with most of its faculty over the past few years through our affiliations with ENVS, I have not played any kind of role in the Center during that time,” Vanderheiden states.  “Given my relevant research interests, I’m keen to contribute.”

After graduating with his PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Vanderheiden spent time as a professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth before joining CU Boulder in 2007.  Since joining CU, Vanderheiden describes his research as working at “the intersection of the social sciences and humanities,” with a focus on issues related to international climate politics and a specific interest in how values affect the governance process, “whether as constraints or criteria for the evaluation of policies or institutions.”  His book Atmospheric Justice: A Political Theory of Climate Change (Oxford, 2009; winner of the 2009 International Studies Association’s Harold and Margaret Sprout award for best book in international environmental politics) addresses such issues and provides a framework in which the idea of environmental justice can enter into global climate policy.

Vanderheiden’s current research projects focus on equity and accountability in adaptation governance, as well as in carbon accounting and informational governance that will allow him to “utilize more of my social science training (as opposed to the more normative analysis of most of my past work), including some fieldwork and interviews, that should help me expand my research acumen and really work on some interesting projects.”

For more information visit Steve’s CSTPR webpage. Welcome Steve!