Dean Sara S. Bachman of Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) spoke about the School’s understanding of the climate crisis as a significant social justice issue during a Climate Week discussion highlighted in Penn Today.
Speaking on a panel of deans and leaders from all five of Penn’s health schools, Dr. Bachman said that as SP2 faculty research innovative, effective solutions to oppression and inequality, they look at how to “mitigate the unevenly distributed social consequences of climate change.”
She pointed to several SP2 faculty working in climate inequality, including Assistant Professor R. Jisung Park, who has shown how heat impacts children’s learning and test scores; Assistant Professor Alice Xu, who studies the impact of environmental politics in the Global South; Research Assistant Professor Chenyi Ma, who researches the human toll of climate-related disasters; and Professor Femida Handy, who looks at the transfer of environmental behaviors and attitudes between generations.