PhD Fellowship in Climate Change and Environmental Justice

2023-2024 PhD Fellowship in Climate Change, Environmental Justice, & Community-Engaged Research

Applications due May 31st

The UC Irvine Climate Justice Initiative (website under construction, but based in the ESS Department) and the Research Justice Shop are recruiting current and incoming UCI Ph.D. students for our 2023-2024 graduate fellowships in climate change, environmental justice, & community-engaged research. Fellows will join our new UC Irvine initiative, which seeks to develop a Cultural, Learning, and Institutional Model to Accelerate Transformations for Environmental Justice (CLIMATE Justice). These fully-funded fellowships are open to current and incoming UCI PhD students in any discipline with research interests in climate change and environmental justice. People who have completed the RJS fellowship or R2R fellowship in the past are eligible to apply.  All fellows will need to complete the 2023-24 RJS workshop series, which will be modified from 2022-23, as part of the fellowship requirements.

The PhD Fellowship will include:

• Cross-disciplinary and justice-centered approaches to addressing climate change impacts, adaptation, and solutions
• Courses and workshops on community-engaged research practices and environmental justice
• Working closely with community partners on co-designed research projects that address environmental justice issues (our partners include Orange County Environmental Justice, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, GREEN-MPNA, and Crystal Cove Conservancy). 
• Tailored professional development & career training
• Guidance by a diverse network of mentors
• Becoming part of a diverse and multi-disciplinary community of students, researchers, faculty, and staff dedicated to centering social and environmental justice in climate change research. 

The CLIMATE Justice initiative strives to foster an inclusive and collaborative working environment that welcomes diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences.  We strongly encourage applications from members of historically marginalized communities.

Please email kathleen.johnson@uci.edu with any questions.

Applications are due May 31, 2023. 

About the CLIMATE Justice Initiative:

UCI’s CLIMATE Justice Initiative aims to culturally transform the geosciences through multidirectional programming that brings on-the ground challenges of environmental justice and sustainability into the heart of geoscience research and education. The specific project objectives are to: 1) Train and empower postbaccalaureate and PhD students from historically marginalized communities to pursue graduate education and careers related to climate change, 2) Increase participation of scientists from traditional STEM disciplines in environmental justice and community-engaged research, 3) Build strong cross-disciplinary collaborations between geoscientists and experts from other fields, such as social science, 4) Develop equitable partnerships with community-based organizations, and 5) Transform the culture of geoscience by building a learning ecosystem that spans traditional institutional, disciplinary, and hierarchical boundaries. The project is funded through the US National Science Foundation’s Cultural Transformations in the Geoscience Community program.