Justin Farrell is Professor of Sociology at Yale University, School of the Environment.

Farrell researches how different human societies understand the natural world. He focuses on the causes and consequences of climate change, social class, morality, and epistemology. His studies blend large-scale computational methods with local qualitative fieldwork.

His books and articles have won national awards and regularly appear in major media. He frequently presents findings to policymakers, including the U.S. Senate, the White House, the Vatican, and the United Nations. His research has been published by Science, Princeton University Press, the American Sociological Review, PNAS, Nature Climate Change, Social Problems, among others, and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. 

Justin is a proud first-generation college graduate and Wyoming native. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He splits time between rural Wyoming, Denver, and New Haven.

Select Articles

[1] Conservatism, the Far-Right, and the Environment, Annual Review of Sociology

[2] The Influence of the Nature-Culture Dualism on Morality, Sociology of Morality Vol.2

[3] Effects of land dispossession and forced migration on Indigenous peoples in North America, Science

[4] Impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on rural America, PNAS

Books

[1] Billionaire Wilderness, Princeton University Press

[2] Battle for Yellowstone, Princeton University Press

[3] New book in progress, under contract with W.W. Norton

Research In-process

[1] The effect of temporal orientation on extremism and social conflict about climate

[2] Native Land Research Initiative

Courses

[1] Sociology of Sacred Values: Modernity, Ecology, and Policy

[2] Rural Field Course

[3] Data Science for Social Research

[4] Nature, Rationality, and Moral Politics

Select Media & Senate Testimony

[1] U.S. Senate testimony on the network structure of climate change policy

[2] CBS News Episode on Billionaire Wilderness

[3] NYT feature on findings from our Science paper

[4] NYT Op-ed