Ry is an eco-decentralist whose work seeks to forge connections among environmental and energy justice, democratic theory, social ecology, organizational theory, virtue ethics, and actor-network theory. Their research methods include intensive interviewing, participant observation, ethnography, and community based participatory action research. They have given guest lectures on climate change and globalization, infrastructure and social change, eco-fascism, and mixed methods research.
About Me
Ry grew up in Weare, New Hampshire. They graduated Williams College in 2012, with a year abroad at Oxford University, where they studied political and sociological theory. They moved to Santa Barbara, California, in 2013, where they spent many years organizing, learning, and teaching. They currently reside in Long Beach, California, where they have founded two worker self-directed enterprises. Outside their work, they enjoy backpacking with their mother, organizing, studying logic, roller skating, and reading science fiction.
Dr. Ry Brennan holds in PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. They study the nexus of ecology, technology, and democracy with a focus on hard and soft energy infrastructure decentralization. Their empirical work currently explores three sites of energy transformation in Santa Barbara County, California: community choice aggregation (CCA), distributed energy resources (DERs), and environment-building trades relations.
Haynes Power Plant, Long Beach, CA. Photo by Ry Brennan.
