Dr. Heather Plumridge Bedi's research examines how civil society and socio-environmental movements experience and adapt to natural resource and landscape modifications related to energy processes, climate change, industrialization, and agricultural transitions. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright Program, the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust, the UK-India Education Research Initiative, the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, and a Mellon Foundation grant at Dickinson College. Her broader research and teaching interests include environmental and social justice, political ecology, development, planning, and just energy transitions. Her current work examines the everyday of energy poverty, solar energy access, and climate change vulnerabilities in South Asia. Dr. Bedi also examines energy injustice through the lens of shale gas extraction (fracking) in the United States. Dr. Bedi’s published work appears in Contemporary South Asia; Development and Change; Economic and Political Weekly; Energy Research and Social Science; Environment and Planning, A; Geoforum; Journal of Contemporary Asia; and Oxford Development Studies. She serves on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Justice Advisory Board and the Cumberland County Food Systems Alliance's board. Dr. Bedi received the American Association of Geographer's Harm de Blij Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Term: 2022 - 2024