Bridging Legal Advocacy and Social Science in the Just Transition: Reflections on the University of New Mexico's Interdisciplinary Just Transition Grand Challengee View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Gabriel Pacyniak  

Last year the University of New Mexico chose an interdisciplinary team working on the Just Transition to a Low-carbon Economy as one of three "Grand Challenges" that would be supported with internal funding. This team is notable because it combines traditional social science researchers working in political science and population health with faculty in law who work on legal and policy advocacy through a law clinic. In the past year, the team has produced both traditional research papers and engaged in legal advocacy in two areas: equitable worker transition in fossil fuel communities, and equitable reduction in cumulative air pollution. This collaboration has been heavily based on community-engaged research and advocacy, which has been a strength of both traditional researchers and the legal team. This paper highlights these two interdisicplinary case studies, shares early lessons learned about combining legal advocacy with traditional scholarship in interdisciplinary social science collaborations, and identifies continuing challenges and barriers.