Dr. Noel Healy was recently awarded a 2015 Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship for a project entitled Fossil Fuel Divestment – A Crude Awakening. Dr. Healy’s project involves a research period in Europe, specifically, a three-week research period in Germany and one week in France conducting research on the burgeoning fossil fuel divestment movement. The fellowship enables Dr. Healy to conduct research at the Bonn Climate Change Conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in June. His second period of research will take place at the 21st United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21/ CMP 11) in Paris in December. Expressing his delight on winning his second Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship Dr. Healy stated, “This fellowship will provide the rare opportunity to observe the negotiation of the world’s most important global climate treaty and it provides an extraordinary opportunity to collect data for my timely research project on the fossil fuel divestment movement."
This research project will build on Dr. Healy’s research on the fossil fuel divestment movement conducted in collaboration with Salem State geography undergraduates Jessica Debski and Joe McGuire. Under Dr. Healy’s supervision, Jessica and Joe won best paper at the NESTVAL 2014 conference.
Dr. Healy is also teaching a new Freshman Seminar entitled The Climate Change Movement: Can Collective Action Save the World? Professor Healy stated that he really looked forward to sharing his experiences from the UNFCC with this new students at Salem State and inspiring a new generation of socially and environmentally conscious students. The geography department at Salem State has a number of courses on climate change and environmental sustainability. Both undergraduate and graduate geography students have received a number of awards for their research at national and international levels.
