Research and Practice

All people and places are touched by climate change — but impacts and capacities to adapt are unevenly distributed across populations and landscapes, making social equity and justice core concerns. Our collaborative, integrative research and practice draw from the work of environmental, social, and policy sciences to strengthen society’s capacity to understand and address the climate crisis — charting a socially just, sustainable, climate-responsive future.

We adopt a holistic perspective on health that extends beyond the narrow confines of physical well-being to encompass the mental, spiritual, social, and environmental dimensions. Health is linked to a complex interplay among socio-economic, cultural, political, and environmental conditions. In our research and practice, we are committed to the overarching goal of achieving health equity and justice on a global scale. This commitment requires that we challenge gender, class, and generational hierarchies that shape individuals’ access to resources, opportunities, and health outcomes. Our comprehensive orientation to health research and practice informs strategies that promote inclusivity and foster positive change.

Food is a fundamental human right and central to sustainable, equitable, and just community development. Despite rapid advances in agricultural science and technology, millions of people around the world continue to experience malnourishment and extreme hunger. Human and planetary well-being is not possible unless communities everywhere have equal access to safe, nutritious, sufficient, and culturally meaningful food. Multiple forms of knowledge and expertise are needed to address this complex problem.

Researchers and practitioners at SSJ are helping to improve urban food systems in the city of Worcester, agricultural resilience in Puerto Rico, and exploring the ways Indigenous and other place-based ecological knowledge can enable communities in Ethiopia to enhance food security and anticipate and adapt to change.