Accelerator for environmental justice (EJ) at Stanford

Team: Robert Jackson, Sibyl Diver, Emily Polk, Rodolfo Dirzo, Jane Willenbring, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi
Planning (Scoping)

Klamath River photo that is evocative of the dam removal, where the river is reclaiming its channel after dam reservoirs have been drained. (*Image credit: John R. Oberholzer Dent, Stanford alum, Karuk Department of Natural Resources Watershed Program)*

The Environmental Justice Working Group at Stanford has accelerated community-engaged EJ teaching, learning, and research. Our strategic EJ partnerships and projects have provided the infrastructure for implementing and growing interdisciplinary community-academic research and communities of practice at Stanford. For example, building on a long-term collaboration with the Karuk Tribe, we have conducted a social impact assessment of Klamath dam removal (the largest dam removal in history) that centers Tribal community well-being and is producing high-impact publications rooted in reciprocal relationships and EJ principles.

In partnership with the Haas Center and Earth Systems Program, we have launched a yearly Just Transitions Policy Lab advancing solutions to local housing, labor, and transportation justice issues. Further, through our EJ Communication for Social Change initiative, we have led a transdisciplinary EJ curriculum project, supported by our national EJ education database and collaborations with Haas and the Center for Teaching and Learning, to analyze research on EJ pedagogy, produce online EJ teacher training modules, and help shape EJ education in local schools.