Assistant Professor
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
School of Computing, Informatics, & Decision Systems Engineering
Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
kirk.jalbert@asu.edu
Fellowship Project: Assessing Capacity for Deployments of Data and Technology in Public Engagements with Oil and Gas Pipeline Projects
Kirk Jalbert is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society with a joint appointment in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering. He is also a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU.
Kirk directs the Civic Science for Environmental Futures Collaborative, a space exploring participatory action research projects driven by communities working to create more equitable environment futures. Kirk’s personal research explores public engagements with environmental science and governance that emerge from energy justice movements and how these are shaped by data mobilizations, information technologies, and grassroots scientific research efforts. His work additionally seeks to understand the social, political, and technical dynamics that make for effective academic, nonprofit, and community-based research partnerships.
Prior to joining ASU, Kirk worked in the nonprofit sector, facilitating data transparency, mapping, and digital storytelling projects as Manager of Community-Based Research and Engagement for the FracTracker Alliance. He also served on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board from 2016 to 2018. His recent edited volume, ExtrACTION: Impacts, Engagements and Alternative Futures, examines global opposition to resource extraction from a critical ethnographic perspective, exploring why and how resistance movements seek to change extraction policies.
Kirk received his Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his M.F.A. in Media Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Tufts, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.