Denise Fernandes
(she/her)
Assistant Professor of Politics
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Maxey Hall 122
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509-524-2085
Denise Fernandes’ teaching and scholarship focuses on renewable energy and fossil fuel landscapes, climate justice, and the reproduction of injustices and inequalities on historically marginalized communities in the Global South. For her Ph.D., she studied the financialization of World Bank funded solar parks in India. In this work, she investigated the historic narratives and rhetoric that shaped solar decision-making processes during the energy transition process in the Global South. She is currently collaborating with communities and scholars in Morocco to investigate the ongoing dispossession by solar and wind farms. She is also collaborating with journalists to investigate the expansion of coal mines and the closure of the same in India. Besides her academic work, she collaborates with artists to visually portray energy landscapes and the climate crisis.
Areas of Expertise/Interest
Climate/Environment Justice, Geopolitics, International Finance, Energy Politics, South Asia & North Africa
Ph.D. Environmental Studies
University of Colorado-Boulder
August 2024
M.A. Sustainable Development Practice
TERI University, New Delhi, India
May 2013
B.A. Political Science
St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India
May 2011
Books
Denise Fernandes & Shelby McAuliffe. (2022). Invisible Disruptions: Cultural politics of hydraulic fracturing in Colorado, Photographic narrative. Funded and Published by NEST, CU-Boulder
Journalistic Articles
Mridual Chari & Denise Fernandes (2023, December 14). As COP28 debates phrasing on fossil fuels, a snapshot of life near India’s coal mines: India eventually agreed to ‘phase down’- not ‘phase out’- fossil fuel. But how will this impact residents of Medhauli? Newslaundry
Book Chapters
Joanne Marras Tate & Denise Fernandes, (forthcoming), Indigenous women’s movements in the Global South: Fighting for the Earth and their identities, providing tools for environmental hope around the world, in Emma Frances Bloomfield and Jose Castro-Sotomayor (eds.) Intersectional Change-makers in Environmental Activism, Minnesota State University Press
Denise Fernandes, Kirsten Jörgenson, N.C. Narayanan, 2019, Factors shaping the climate policy process in India, in Holmes, N.C., Jörgenson, K., Ollier, L.L., & Raghunandan, D., Environmental Policy in India, 1st Edition, Routledge, India.
- Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) Teaching Excellence Award, 2022-2023, University of Colorado-Boulder
- Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Excellence Award, 2022-2023, University of Colorado-Boulder
- Graduate Part-Time Instructor (GPTI) Teaching Recognition Award 2023, University of Colorado-Boulder
- Environmental Studies (ENVS) Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Colorado-Boulder 2019