Julie Gorecki

PhD Candidate, Society and Environment division of Environmental Science and Policy Management; University of California, Berkeley

Masters, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

BA, Joint Specialist in Political Science and Philosophy, Minor in History; University of Toronto

Climate Change, Environmental Impact, Feminist Theory, Women and Gender Studies, Ecofeminism, Postcolonial Feminism, Post Colonial Studies, Queer Ecologies, Indigenous Feminism, Critical Theory, Feminist Economics, Environmental Studies, Environmental Philosophy, Qualitative Methodologies

Scholars and international organizations have shown that climate change disproportionately affects women. Indigenous women and women of the Global South are particularly impacted. Women’s traditional labor roles and their lack of economic and socio-political power are proving to be non-conducive to climate change adaptation. Affected women have organized the “Women for Climate Justice” contingent — an international interface of women’s groups, collectives, initiatives and organizations — positioned at the forefront of the global climate justice movement. They look to remedy the disproportionate effects of climate change on them, while contending that women’s local work skills and knowledge can help mitigate climate change. My research investigates the nexus between climate change and gender. Specifically, I explore the burdens and solutions of the Women for Climate Justice contingent to better understand the global pattern of gendered vulnerability to climate change, as well as how it sheds light on feminist theories that explain the wider systemic oppression of women.

The theoretical component of my research is embedded in ecological feminist theories that have long contended that environmental and gender exploitation are linked. They have affirmed that capitalism’s founding ideology of continuous growth—materialized as the infinite extraction of finite natural resources—has been necessitated by the coincident subordination of women, minorities, and nature, and is based on the exploitation of women’s, power, bodies and labor.

1. “‘Mother Earth’ Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism in North America,” Genesis : Rivista della Societa Italiana delle Stroriche, international and mutilingual academic journal

Arnold Schultz Fellowship (2017)

Highest Honors, Masters Degree, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) (2013)