Environmental Justice Commons

The Environmental Justice Commons seeks to enhance and elevate multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary initiatives that prioritize diverse perspectives to advance environmental justice scholarship and culture throughout the university—and beyond.

The Environmental Justice Commons (formerly the Georgetown Environmental Justice Program) at Georgetown University was established in 2021, inspired by the encyclical Laudato Si’, to serve as a bridge between Georgetown’s work in ethics and its commitment to environment and sustainability. The program is now evolving into the Environmental Justice Commons, reflecting its new role within the Earth Commons, Georgetown’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability.

The Environmental Justice Commons embraces the belief that no single discipline can fully address the complexities of environmental justice. As such, the Environmental Justice Commons seeks to elevate multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary initiatives that prioritize diverse perspectives to advance environmental justice scholarship and culture throughout the university—and beyond.

Environmental justice embraces the principle that all communities are entitled to equal protection of our housing, transportation, employment, and transportation energy. And so it’s a concept that’s rolled in equal protection, equal access, equal enforcement.

Robert D. Bullard

Work with us!

Professor and Director of the Environmental Justice Program. ECo seeks a tenured associate or full Professor in the field of Environmental Justice. This individual will also be the Director of an emerging program, the Environmental Justice Commons, within the Earth Commons Institute with a tenure home in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences as well as a joint appointment in another to-be-determined school depending on the candidate’s area of expertise. Apply now!

Environmental Justice Scholars

Randall Amster

Teaching Professor and Co-Director | Co-Director, Environmental Studies

Tim Bartley

Professor
Earth Commons and Department of Sociology

Nejm Benessaiah

Assistant Teaching Professor

William Buzbee

Edward and Carole Walter Professor of Law

Sara Colangelo

Visiting Professor of Law and Director of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic

Kerry Danner

Adjunct Lecturer
Professorial Lecturer – Department of Theology

Marisa Ensor

Adjunct Lecturer
Senior Climate Research Fellow – Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security Justice and Institute for the Study of Int’l Migration, School of Foreign Service

Jason Farr

Assistant Teaching Professor

Sheila Foster

The Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Urban Law and Policy and Professor of Public Policy

LaMonda Horton-Stallings

Professor | Chair, Department of Black Studies

Yuki Kato

Associate Professor

Monica Sanders

Adjunct Professor of Law

Barwendé Sané

Postdoctoral Associate

Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Associate Professor

Affiliated Initiatives

The Environmental Justice Commons aligns with a broader network of practical ethics centers at Georgetown—including the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, and the Center for Digital Ethics—further building on Georgetown’s legacy of innovative work in practical ethics.