Chad Monfreda

Position
2017-2018 Princeton-Mellon / Climate Futures Initiative Fellow
Education

Ph.D., Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, Arizona State University, 2015
M.S., Land Resources, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2007
B.A., Environmental Science, Minor in Environmental Policy & Analysis, Boston University, 2000

Bio/Description

Chad Monfreda is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work explores the relationship between the ways people know and govern the global environment. He has published widely in both the physical and social sciences on a range of topics, including global land-use change, the science-policy interface for biodiversity conservation, and the governance of carbon markets. At Princeton, Monfreda’s research investigates the relationship between the environmental imagination and social transformation. This work draws on comparative, historical studies of the social imagination in cities grappling with a changing climate, in order to draw practical and conceptual lessons for the transformation of education, arts-science integration, and the narrative imagination for sustainability in the Anthropocene. Monfreda’s professional experience also extends to policy and practice, including engagements with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) as an Editor and Thematic Expert on Sustainable Energy and writer for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. Other positions include appointments with the sustainability think tank Redefining Progress, board of the youth-run organization SustainUS, and secretariat of the consultative process towards an International Mechanism for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Chad will be co-appointed with the Climate Futures Initiative. His fellowship is made possible through funding from the Princeton Environmental Institute's Urban Grand Challenge.