Apr 26, 2022
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that Michael Méndez, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy, has been named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Professor Méndez will use the funding to support the completion of his next book, titled Undocumented Disasters: (In)visible Communities Confronting Climate Change and Environmental Injustice, in preparation for Yale University Press. Professor Méndez joins an exclusive cohort of 28 distinguished fellows nationwide selected from nearly 300 nominees. Each fellow will receive $200,000 in philanthropic support for their research in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting society. The selection criteria prioritize the originality and potential impact of the research proposal, as well as the scholar’s capacity to communicate the findings to a broad audience.
His first book, Climate Change From the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement, was awarded the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award from the International Studies Association and the Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award from the Association for Humanist Sociology. In 2021, Professor Méndez became the first Latino scholar to receive the National Academies’ Henry and Bryna David Endowment award for his research on wildfires and their disparate impact on migrant populations. Supported by a National Science Foundation early-career faculty award and in conjunction with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, his new research focuses on climate-induced disasters and explores the disparate treatment of undocumented Latino/a and Indigenous migrants during extreme events like wildfires, droughts and heatwaves in California.
Please join us in congratulating Professor Méndez on this accomplishment.
Sincerely,Hal SternProvost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Jon GouldDean, School of Social Ecology