Dr. Debra J. Davidson is Professor of Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta, where she has worked since 1999. She focuses her research in four key areas: the role of emotions in shaping social responses to the climate emergency; climate change vulnerability, impacts and adaptation; the politics of energy transition; and theorizing socio-evolutionary change. Debra received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998, where she worked with Frederick Buttel and William Freudenburg. She was born in Los Angeles, and has two daughters.

Nominations & Awards

Debra is the recipient of the Buttel International Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Environmental Sociology, International Sociological Association, 2018-2022, the University of Alberta Killam Annual Professorship, 2019-2020, and the McCalla Research Professorship, 2011-2012. She has also been nominated to serve on the United Nations Environment Programme’s Expert Foresight Panel, beginning in 2023, and the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association, 2023-2026.  She also served as Lead Author for the 5th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II. See more here.

Publications

Selected Recent publications:

Letourneau, Angeline, Debra J. Davidson, Carrie Karsgaard & Dasha Ivanova. 2023. “Proud fathers and fossil fuels: gendered identities and climate obstruction,” Environmental Politics,  DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2023.2274271

Karsgaard, Carrie and Davidson, Debra J. 2023 “Must we wait for youth to speak out before we listen? International youth perspectives and climate change education.” Educational Review, Special Issue: Youth Activism, Climate Change, and Education, 75(1): 74-92.

Letourneau, Angeline and Davidson, Debra J. 2022. “Destabilizing farmer identities: A necessary but insufficient precursor to agricultural system transition.” Environmental Sociology, 8(4): 459-470.

Blue, Gwendolyn, Davidson, Debra J. and, Myles, Kristy. 2022. “Expectations of genomic selection for forestry: Expert narratives of anticipation and legitimation.” Science as Culture, 31(2): 256-275. Davidson, Debra J. and Maik Kecinski. 2022. “Emotional pathways to climate action.” WIREs Climate Change 13(2): e751.

See more here.

Research

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