Aaron McCright

Aaron M. McCright is a Professor of Sociology in Lyman Briggs College, the Department of Sociology, and the Environmental Science and Policy Program 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 and technological risks. Employing a range of methods and analytical techniques, Dr. McCright explains the structure, strategy, tactics, and impacts of the US-based climate change denial countermovement; analyzes theoretically relevant patterns and trends in citizens’ climate change views; develops and tests theoretical arguments about selected predictors of environmental decision-making more generally; and investigates key predictors of public views of science and scientists. Dr. McCright has published two books, has authored ten chapters in edited volumes, and has written three brief reports. He also has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in such scholarly journals as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Nature Climate Change; Global Environmental Change; Climatic Change; Public Opinion Quarterly; Social Problems; Social Science Quarterly; Theory, Culture, and Society; The Sociological Quarterly; Journal of Risk Research; Organization and Environment; Environment and Behavior; Population and Environment; 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.