Work in Progress: Religion and the Environment
My current project examines how religion shapes interpretations of and responses to climate change and environmental degradation in the global south. Most of the research is focused on Brazil, but coauthors and I have also studied Kenya, and future work may expand beyond those two countries. This project will have several outputs, including a book tentatively entitled The Burning Bush: Religion and Climate Change in Brazil, and co-authored articles with Robin Globus Veldman, Lauren Honig, and Jaimie Bleck. This research and writing has been funded by the Carnegie Corporation; the Global Religion Research Initiative; Fulbright; the Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs; the Wilson Center; and internal support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.
Here are the first two papers coming out of the project:
- Honig, Lauren, Amy Erica Smith, and Jaimie Bleck. Forthcoming. “What Stymies Action on Climate Change? Religious Institutions, Marginalization, and Efficacy in Kenya.” Perspectives on Politics. *Replication Code
- Smith, Amy Erica, and Robin Globus Veldman. 2020. “Evangelical Environmentalists? Evidence from Brazil.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 59(2): 341–59.
My Recent Book
Smith, Amy Erica. 2019. Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God. Cambridge University Press.