Bellagio Residency: April 2023
Project: “Green Justice: Excavating the Future in “Lithium Valley””
Dr. Manuel Pastor is a distinguished sociologist and scholar focused on economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income urban communities and social movements seeking to change those realities. Manuel visited Bellagio in April 2023 to work on a group project with Chris Benner examining the socio-ecological and economic justice implications of mining lithium, a mineral key to the emerging electrical vehicle industry and renewable energy storage market, in California’s Salton Sea area. He is currently a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He also directs the Equity Research Institute at USC and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change.