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Geoffrey Henderson
Assistant Professor
Environmental Policy and Planning
Climate + Energy
Office
3506 Dana
About
Geoffrey Henderson is an assistant professor in the Environmental Policy and Planning specialization. He joined SEAS from Colby College, where he was a visiting assistant professor of environmental studies. His research interests include how to make democracy work better in the context of large-scale environmental problems, primarily climate change.
His work considers how civic organizations and social movements stimulate political participation and form coalitions, with a focus on the climate justice movement. He has studied efforts to engage people in small-dollar campaign finance and environmental activism, how environmental attitudes affect behavior, and how members of Congress learn their constituents’ opinions. His current research examines state- and federal-level coalitions of environmental and labor groups advocating policies to address climate change.
After receiving his PhD in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, he was a postdoctoral associate in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Prior to academia, he worked as a climate policy researcher at the World Resources Institute. He received his BA in political science from Haverford College.
Publications
Carnes, Nicholas and Geoffrey L. Henderson. 2025. "Not Getting the Message on Climate: Attention as a Key Barrier to Mass-Marketing Experimentally-Validated Messages." British Journal of Political Science 55: e106. doi:10.1017/S000712342510063X
Henderson, Geoffrey, Matto Mildenberger, and Leah C. Stokes. 2025. "The effect of environmental voter mobilization on voter turnout and environmental attitudes: Evidence from a field experiment in British Columbia, Canada." Climatic Change 178: 123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-03957-w
Drake, Henri F. and Geoffrey Henderson. 2022. "A Defense of Usable Climate Mitigation Science: How Science can Contribute to Social Movements." Climatic Change 172: 10. doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03347-6
Henderson, Geoffrey, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Matto Mildenberger, and Leah C. Stokes. 2021. "Conducting the Heavenly Chorus: Constituent Contact and Provoked Petitioning in Congress." Perspectives on Politics: 1-18. doi.org/10.1017/S1537592721000980
Henderson, Geoffrey and Hahrie Han. 2020a. “If We Build It, Only Some Will Come: An Experimental Study of Mobilization for Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program.” Journal of Experimental Political Science: 1-16. doi.org/10.1017/XPS.2020.32
Henderson, Geoffrey and Hahrie Han. 2020b. “Linking Members to Leaders: How Civic Associations Can Strengthen Members’ External Political Efficacy.” American Politics Research: 1-11. doi.org/10.1177/1532673X20972101
Sparks, Aaron C., Geoffrey L. Henderson, Shyam K. Sriram, and Eric R.A.N. Smith. 2020. “Measuring Environmental Values and Identity.” Society & Natural Resources: 1-20. doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2020.1817644
Research
My ongoing research focuses on three aspects of the environmental movement. First, how do environmental groups get people involved in activism? Second, when do these groups build coalitions with other movements, such as organized labor? Third, how does collective action around environmental issues affect policymakers' decisions?
Education
Ph.D. in Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A. in Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A. in Political Science, Haverford College
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