Kathleen J. Hancock

Dr. Kathleen J. Hancock is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Department. She is a core faculty member in, and former Director of, the M.S in Natural Resources & Energy Policy (NREP) and is Co-Director of the multidisciplinary Energy Minor. In 2015-16, Dr. Hancock was Visiting Researcher at Freie Universität Berlin where she worked on energy and regionalism and regionalism in the former Soviet space. Before earning her PhD at UCSD, Dr. Hancock worked in Washington, DC for ten years, including as a senior analyst in international security at the Government Accountability Office and lobbyist on nuclear arms control for the Federation of American Scientists. She also earned an MA in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at George Washington University.  

Her in-progress (co-authored) book analyzes the changing politics of renewable energy in the U.S. with a focus on how lower solar and wind prices have brought in new pro-renewable energy actors and the growing role of social justice organizations. She highlights how conventional understandings of energy politics (Republicans are pro-fossil fuels; Democrats are pro-renewables) do not capture the richness of energy politics. Understanding these dynamics will help policy makers and the public better understand how the U.S. can continue to increase renewable energy production and consumption.  She is also working on papers on energy equity, nuclear energy in the US, and community solar. 

She is the founding and lead editor of the Oxford Handbook on Energy Politics and co-authored three chapters in the 30-chapter book.  She has published a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on energy security, hydropower in Africa, mining laws in Chile, and regional trade in Africa, among other topics. She guest edited a special issue on Renewable Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contributions from the Social Sciences (Energy Research and Social Sciences, 2015) and is now editing and contributing to a special issue on Energy Regionalism (forthcoming, Review of Policy Research). Earlier publications, including her book Regional Integration: Choosing Plutocracy (Palgrave, 2009) focused on economic relationships between Russia and the other former Soviet states and included field research in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. 

Dr. Hancock serves on the founding Board of Directors for the Society of Black Solar Professionals and works on community outreach for WRISE (Women in Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy) Colorado Chapter.  She is active in helping students find jobs in renewable energy through an annual career event and in organizing and coordinating with faculty, students, and staff interested in renewable and sustainable energy. 

Curriculum Vitae