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Department of Sociology

David J. Hess

Professor of Sociology
James Thornton Fant Chair in Sustainability Studies

Associate Director, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment; Director, Program on Environmental and Sustainability Studies

David J. Hess is a professor in the Sociology Department at Vanderbilt University and Director of Climate and Environmental Studies. His research and teaching is on policy and societal dimensions of science, technology, health, and the environment. He has been a Fulbright scholar and the PI and Co-PI on grants from the National Science Foundation and other organizations. His research is on coalitions, social movements, scientific knowledge, and strategic action with respect to energy transitions and technological change. He has over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications and over a dozen books and edited volumes. Among his awards, he is the recipient of the Robert K. Merton Prize (American Sociological Association), the Diana Forsythe Prize (American Anthropological Association), the Star-Nelkin Prize (shared with coauthors, American Sociological Association), and the General Anthropology Division Prize for Exemplary Cross-Field Scholarship (American Anthropological Association).

Specializations

Science and Technology; Environmental Sociology; Political Sociology; Social Movements


Representative publications

Hess, David J. 2021. David Hess. Environmental Movements and Industrial Transitions. In Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso, eds., Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements.

David J. Hess, Rachel McKane, and Caroline Pietrzyk. 2021. End of the Line: Environmental Justice, Energy Justice, and Opposition to Power Lines. Environmental Politics 10.1080/09644016.2021.1952799

Hess, David J., and Benjamin Sovacool. Sociotechnical Matters: Science and Technology Studies Perspectives in Energy Studies. Energy Research and Social Science. 65: 101462. (July). doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101462.

David Hess. Coalitions, Framing, and the Politics of Energy Transitions: Local Democracy and Community Choice in California. Energy Research and Social Science 50: 38-50.

Hess, David J. 2016. Undone Science: Social Movements, Mobilized Publics, and Industrial Transitions. MIT Press.

2016. David J. Hess, Sulfikar Amir, Scott Frickel, Daniel Lee Kleinman, Kelly Moore, and Logan Williams. “Structural Inequality and the Politics of Science and Technology.” In Rayvon Fouché, Clarke Miller, Laurel Smith-Doerr, and Ulrike Felte (eds.), Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. MIT Press. Pp. 319-347.

For a full list of publications and some full texts, go to www.davidjhess.net