Aaron McCright

Aaron M. McCright is Professor in the Department of Sociology and AgBioResearch at Michigan State University.  His scholarly research agenda aims to enhance our sociological understanding of how scientific and technological developments, top-down and bottom-up political processes, and enduring social structures influence societal capacity for recognizing and dealing with environmental impacts, technological risks, and public health risks.  Engaging with an array of middle-range theories and employing a mix of data collection methods and analytical techniques, Dr. McCright (a) explains the structure, strategy, tactics, and impacts of the US-based climate change denial countermovement; (b) analyzes theoretically relevant patterns and trends in adults’ climate change views; (c) develops and tests theoretical arguments about selected predictors of environmental decision-making more generally; (d) investigates key predictors of public views of science and scientists; (e) examines scientists’ philosophical commitments(i.e., epistemology, ontology, and axiology); and (f) studies the relationships among experiential and ideational energy insecurity, support for energy justice, and preferences for sustainable energy technologies.  Over the years, his research has been supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation, US National Institutes of Health, and the Research Council of Norway.  In addition to two books, ten chapters in edited volumes, and three brief reports, he has published approximately 80 articles in such scholarly journals as Nature Energy; Nature Climate Change; Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Psychiatry Research; Global Environmental Change; Energy Research & Social Science; Energy Policy; Comprehensive Psychiatry; Environmental Research Letters; Environment & Behavior; Social Problems; Journal of Risk Research; Organization & Environment; Climatic Change; and Environmental Politics.  Dr. McCright was named a 2007 Kavli Frontiers Fellow in the National Academy of Sciences, he served as a 2008-2009 Lilly Teaching Fellow at MSU, and he received the 2009 Teacher-Scholar Award and the 2009 Curricular Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Award at MSU.  In 2014, he received the Larry T. Reynolds Award for Outstanding Teaching of Sociology from the Michigan Sociological Association.