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Breena Holland, associate professor of political science at Lehigh University

Breena Holland

Associate Professor

610-758-5982
brh205@lehigh.edu
STEPS 586
Education:

Ph.D., University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, 2005

M.A., University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, 1998

B.S., University of California at Berkeley, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, 1996

B.A., University of California at Berkeley, Dept of Jurisprudence & Social Policy, 1996

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Additional Interests

  • Environmental Political Theory
  • Environmental Ethics
  • Animal Ethics
  • Air Pollution
  • Community-Engaged Research

Research Statement

Professor Holland’s primary research is in the areas of environmental policy and political theory and focuses on issues of valuation, justification, and participation in contemporary approaches to policy analysis and administrative rulemaking. She is the author of Allocating the Earth: A Distributional Framework for Protecting Capabilities in Environmental Law and Policy (Oxford University Press, 2014) and she has published in various journals, such as the Journal of Environmental PoliticsPolitics, Groups, and Identities, the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, and Political Research Quarterly.

Professor Holland is currently working on two research projects addressing air pollution in the Lehigh Valley. The first project, which is a collaboration with Lehigh and Northampton counties, involves creating a distributed air monitoring network for fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) in the Lehigh Valley. The second project is on ethylene oxide pollution in Allentown, PA, and is a collaboration with Dr. Hyunok Choi in Lehigh’s Health College, the PA Department of Environmental Protection, and Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley.

Professor Holland also has ongoing research projects related to climate adaptation politics and justice for non-human animals. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Values and the Journal of Environmental Ethics. She is active in the “Environmental Political Theory” section of the Western Political Science Association, where she has served as section chair and on the “best paper” award committee.

Biography

Professor Holland grew up on the in California and Nevada, where she developed a passion open spaces and environmental protection. Since moving to Pennsylvania, she has been engaged in environmental politics and policy at the local and regional level. 

Selected Publications:

Holland, Breena. 2022. “Capabilities, Future Generations, and Climate Justice,” in Steven Gardiner (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Intergenerational Ethics, Oxford University Press

Holland, Breena. 2020. “Capabilities, Well-Being, and Environmental Justice” in Brendan Coolsaet (ed.), Environmental Justice: Key Issues. Routledge

Holland, Breena. 2017. “Procedural Justice in Local Climate Adaptation: Political Capabilities and Transformational Change.” Journal of Environmental Politics 3/17: 391-412

Linch, Amy and Breena Holland. 2017. “Cultural Killing and Capability Conflict.” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 18/3: 322-336

Holland, Breena. 2014. Allocating the Earth: A Distributional Framework for Protecting Capabilities in Environmental Law and Policy. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press.

Holland, Breena. 2008. “Ecology and the Limits of Justice: Establishing ‘Capability Ceilings’ in Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach.” Journal of Human Development and Capabilities {Special Issue on Ideas Changing History) 9/3: 399-423.

Holland, Breena. 2008. “Justice and the Environment in Nussbaum’s ‘Capabilities Approach’: Why Sustainable Ecological Capacity is a Meta-Capability.” Political Research Quarterly 61/2: pp.319-332.

Teaching

EVST/POLS 105, U.S. Domestic Environmental Policy and Law
EVST/POLS 106, Environmental Ethics and Values
EVST/POLS 355/455, Environmental Justice: From Theory to Practice
EVST/POLS 366/466, Advanced Environmental Policy