I am a Professor of Sociology at Idaho State University (hired August 2013, tenured in May 2018). I received a B.A. in Political Science from Colorado State University in 2001 as well as an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Arizona in 2007, both of which inform my work. I then completed a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 2013 and started as an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University in Fall 2013.
I study the reality that fundamentally, there will be trade-offs involved with any of the policy and other negotiations associated with climate changes. This also means that the fairness of the outcomes will depend on an intentional building of alliances, in which researchers come to understand how different communities establish values — including those related to socio-environmental sustainability. My recent work has focused especially on rural farming communities’ legal issues regarding water rights and how the policy process, and the built-in uncertainties in it, affects farmers as they make early-season decisions and prepare for future crop years.
I am also just starting a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project working with rural communities in the Pacific Northwest to see what they need to adapt to climate change. This work is occurring primarily in Umatilla County, Oregon, and involves working with collaborators at the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington as well as a local community group in Umatilla/La Grande called Oregon Rural Action. For this project, which involves testing and mapping nitrate contamination in the local aquifer, both environmental justice and government accountability is centered.
I am currently working on a project centered around climate grief/eco-anxiety, and the role climate projections make in both the decision-making and mental health of young people. In the past I also examined international variation in public opinion about climate change and noted that respondents from developed “richer” countries were less concerned about the effects of a changing climate than those living in less developed places in which subsistence farming was still common. If you are interested in participating in this project — as respondent or other — please let me know.
Dr. Katrina Running 