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Kimberly Smith
Lecturer
Environmental Policy and Planning
Climate + Energy
Conservation + Restoration
Websites
About
Kimberly Smith is a political scientist who studies environmental ethics, policy, and law. Her research focuses on the development of the American “green state”: the evolution of our collective capacity to manage complex socioecological systems and to achieve meaningful relationships with the natural world. She has published on American agrarianism, African American environmental thought, animal policy, and the history of environmental law. She taught in the political science department and environmental studies program at Carleton College for over two decades before coming to the University of Michigan.
Publications
Making Climate Lawyers: Climate Change in American Law Schools, 1985-2020. University Press of Kansas, 2024.
The Conservation Constitution: The Conservation Movement and Constitutional Change, 1870-1930. University Press of Kansas, 2019.
Exploring Environmental Ethics. AESS Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and Sciences Series. Springer, 2018.
Governing Animals: Animal Welfare and the Liberal State. Oxford University Press 2012.
African American Environmental Thought: Foundations. University Press of Kansas, 2007.
Wendell Berry and the Agrarian Tradition: A Common Grace. University Press of Kansas, 2003.
Education
PhD University of Michigan (political science)
JD Berkeley Law School
AB University of Michigan (anthropology)
In the News
In the Media