Timmons Roberts

Ittleson Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology

Areas of Interest: Environmental Change

Biography

Timmons Roberts has taught in and directed environmental science and policy programs at Brown, at the College of William and Mary, and at Tulane University. Co-author and editor of fourteen books and edited volumes, and of over eighty articles and book chapters, Timmons’ current research focuses on social drivers of action and inaction on climate change. His approach to research is to learn about social change by participating with leading engaged actors in the real world. His Climate and Development Lab at Brown partners with research institutions, NGOs, and organizations at the local, national and international levels around the world.

Research

Timmons' approach to research is to learn about social change by participating with leading engaged actors in the real world. His Climate and Development Lab at Brown partners with research institutions, NGOs, and organizations at the local, national and international levels around the world. He is a leader in Rhode Island's efforts to plan for climate change. He teaches courses on equity and the environment, on globalization and the environment, and practicum group workshop courses on local, national and global environmental policy issues. He recently served on the Board on Environmental Change and Society of the National Academy of Sciences, and was awarded the Frederick Buttel Awards for distinguished scholarship from the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association.

Publications

William F. Lamb, Giulio Mattioli, Sebastian Levi, J. Timmons Roberts, Stuart Capstick, Felix Creutzig, Jan C. Minx, Finn Müller-Hansen, Trevor Culhane*, & Julia K. Steinberger. "Discourses of climate delay,"
Global Sustainability 3 (July 2020).

Timmons Roberts, Julia K. Steinberger, Thomas Dietz, William F. Lamb, Richard York, Andrew K. Jorgenson, Jennifer E. Givens, Paul Baer, & Juliet B. Schor. "Four agendas for research and policy on emissions mitigation and well-being,"
Global Sustainability 3 (January 2020).

Mizan Khan, J. Timmons Roberts, Saleemul Huq, & Victora Hoffmeister. "The Paris Framework for Climate Change Capacity Building," London and New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis (2018)

(See CV for full list of publications)

Teaching

ENVS 0150 – Climate Futures and a Sociology of Just Transitions

ENVS 0705 – Equity and the Environment: Movements, Scholarship, Solutions

ENVS 1415 – Power, Justice, and Climate Change

ENVS 1574 – Engaged Climate Policy in the U.S.: Rhode Island and Washington, DC

ENVS 1575 – Engaged Climate Policy at the UN Climate Change Talks