Todd J. Lu

Research Background

My research employs mixed methods to analyze how cultural ideas across social movements shape U.S. environmental politics. My current projects analyze 1) divergent cultural meanings of “green jobs” between U.S. labor unions and environmental organizations, 2) political mobilization and discourse around heat stress protections in U.S. workplaces, and 3) the cultural and political spillover effects of the Black Lives Matter movement on the U.S. environmental organizations.

I am also developing a community-engaged project identifying enforcement challenges and gaps between formal occupational safety and health rules and workers’ own experiences confronting heat stress and other environmental hazards. 

My work appears in peer-reviewed academic journals including Environmental Politics, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, and Annual Review of Sociology.