Environmental Justice

Building Equity Amid Climate Change

Engaging with partners from around the world and across campus, SJSU researchers find ways to right historical injustices in the environment. From tracking the impacts of transportation policies to monitoring environmental toxins to developing community gardens for education and to combat food deserts, SJSU researchers work to mitigate environmental injustice. Below is a rotating selection of our standout investigators in this area.

   ○ Recent News and Highlights
   ○ Related Strengths: Social Justice
   ○ Related Strength: Public Policy

• Selected Publications

  • Cordero, E., Centeno, D., and Todd, A. M. (2020). The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions. PloS One, 15(2).

    Hu, S., Feng, X., Huang, W., Ibrahim, S. A., and Liu, Y. (2020). Effects of drying methods on non-volatile taste components of Stropharia rugoso-annulata mushrooms. LWT - Food Science and Technology, 127.

    Rampini, C. (2021). Climate and energy justice along the Brahmaputra River in Northeast India. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5(4).

    Fraleigh, S. H. & Riley, S. R., eds. (2024). Geographies of Us: Ecosomatic Essays and Practice Pages. Routledge.

    Rivers, D. Life Outside: Speculative Ecologies, Decolonial Relations. Forthcoming from Duke University Press, 2025.

    Lynch A., Veland, S. (2018). Urgency in the Anthropocene. MIT Press.

• Award Highlights

  • Diao, “California Community and Earth-system Integrated Climate Resilience Center (CalCEI CRC)” — DOE Climate Resilience Center, 2023

    Diao, “Developing Partnership between San Jose State University and DOE Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to Enhance Climate Research Equity and Inclusion” — DOE, 2022

    Rampini, Alexander, “Resilient And Equitable Urban Stream Corridors” — UC Davis, 2023

    Paul, Visintainer, Pizarro and Wilkinson, “Transforming Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Through Culturally Sustaining, Active, and Asset-Based Approaches to Introductory Science Courses” — NSF, 2020

    Visintainer, “CAREER: Transforming Science Teaching, & Learning in K-12 Schools: Empowering, Teachers & Students as Climate Justice, Action Researchers & Change Agents” — NSF, 2022

• Affiliates

  • Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center

    CSU Council on Ocean Affairs, Science & Technology

    CSU Social Science Research and Instructional Center

    Green Ninja Project

    Campus Community Garden

    CSU-WATER

    Environmental Resource Center

    Ocean Studies Institute (OSI)

Featured Faculty

Eugene Cordero
Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science
Climate Change, Science Education, Environment, Governance, Meteorology, Weather
ORCID: 0000-0001-5452-8896

Minghui Diao
Associate Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science
Climate Impacts and Resilience in California; Clouds and Aerosols in a Changing Climate
ORCID: 0000-0003-0324-0897

Xi Feng
Associate Professor of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging
Food Chemistry, Food Quality, Functional Food, Flavor Formation, Functional Components from Foods

Costanza Rampini
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Human Dimensions of Climate Change, Sustainable Water Resources Management, Environmental Justice
ORCID: 0000-0002-8060-4386

Daniel Lanza Rivers
Assistant Professor of Humanities
Environmental Humanities, Environmental Justice, Queer Feminist Studies, Decolonial Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, Literature, Creative Nonfiction
ORCID: 0000-0002-8124-9208

Shannon Rose Riley
Professor of Humanities
Ecosomatics, Ecophilosophy, Somatics and Trauma, Performance Studies, Performance as Research, Environmental Justice, Critical Whiteness studies, Arts and Healing
ORCID: 0000-0001-8201-9167 

Anne Marie Todd
Dean, College of Social Sciences
Environmental Communication, Climate Change, Environmental Aesthetics, Sense of Place, Sustainability Education, Community Engagement, Integrative Learning
ORCID: 0000-0002-2936-4073

Siri Veland
Assistant Professor of Geology
Transformation, Sustainability, Human-Environment Interactions, Anthropocene, Natural Resource Mgmt., Climate Change, Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge, Food Systems
ORCID: 0000-0003-1500-8729

Tammie Visintainer
Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Race, Identity, Learning, Science Education, Climate Understanding
ORCID: 0000-0002-6127-2777

Potential collaborators and members of the media may contact us at officeofresearch@sjsu.edu.