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Speaker:  Dana R. Fisher, director of the Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE) and a professor in the School of International Service at American University

How do we understand the evolution of activism and protest in times of crisis?  What tools can social scientists use to study the changing tactics and mobilization strategies over time?  This presentation integrates data collected over 20+ years of research on activism and engagement to explore how social movements evolve and respond to our shifting political and environmental context.

In this talk, Dana Fisher will discuss the various methods that can be most useful for studying resistance and protest and how we might integrate data collected over time.  Fisher will present findings from Saving Ourselves and American Resistance, along with recent peer-reviewed papers to provide evidence and insights into what we know and what we need to know to answer these questions.

This talk is offered both in person and online. Light refreshments will be served.

Dana R. Fisher is a dynamic speaker and author who writes about activism, democracy and climate policy.  Her most recent book, Saving Ourselves: from Climate Shocks to Climate Action was published in 2024 by Columbia University Press.  She is the Director of the Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE) and a professor in the School of International Service at American University.  Her current projects include evaluating the ways that nationally coordinated service corps programs are expanding their climate-related work and the effects of all sorts of activism, engagement, and protest.  Fisher is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Governance Studies program at The Brookings Institution and the chair of the Political Sociology section of the American Sociological Association.  She served as a Contributing Author for Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Review (IPCC AR6) writing about citizen engagement and civic activism.  Her media appearances include ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, PBS Newshour, and various programs on NPR, BBC, and CBC. Her words have appeared in the popular media, including in the Washington Post, Slate, TIME Magazine, Politico, the Nation, Teen Vogue and the American Prospect.  In 2024, she delivered a TED talk about being an apocalyptic optimist and what it will really take to get us to the other side of the climate crisis.  Dana earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has authored over eighty research papers and book chapters and has written seven books.  For more details, see www.danarfisher.com.