Rate My Professor Dana Fisher

Fisher's research addresses democracy, civic engagement, activism, and climate politics through a mixed-methods approach incorporating semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and survey data. Her ongoing projects examine political elites' responses to climate change, national service corps programs' roles in disaster response, recovery, and resilience, and pathways to activism and political engagement. She has authored seven books, including Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action (Columbia University Press, 2024), and over 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Key publications include "Climate activism and its effects" (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2021), "The broader importance of #FridaysForFuture" (Nature Climate Change, 2019), "An empirical examination of echo chambers in US climate policy networks" (Nature Climate Change, 2015), and "Youth political participation: Bridging activism and electoral politics" (Annual Review of Sociology, 2012). Fisher serves on the editorial boards of Environmental Research Letters, Climate Policy, and Mobilization, and is Series Editor for the Series on Society and the Environment at Columbia University Press. In fall 2024, she presented a TED Talk entitled "How to Be An Apocalyptic Optimist." Her scholarship has appeared in outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, and PBS NewsHour, with presentations to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, federal agencies, foundations, presidential campaigns, and political organizations.