Matthew C. Nisbet

Matthew C. Nisbet

Associate Professor of Communication, Northeastern University

Matthew C. Nisbet, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs  at Northeastern University. Nisbet studies the role of communication and advocacy in policymaking and public affairs, focusing on debates over over climate change, energy, and sustainability. Among awards and recognition, Nisbet has been a Visiting Shorenstein Fellow on Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, a Health Policy Investigator at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a Google Science Communication Fellow. In 2011, the editors at the journal Nature recommended Nisbet's research as “essential reading for anyone with a passing interest in the climate change debate,” and the New Republic highlighted his work as a “fascinating dissection of the shortcomings of climate activism."

In a paper released today by Harvard University, I analyze the career of writer-turned-activist Bill McKibben and his impact over the past 20 years on the  climate change debate.  Below is […]
In a new study at the journal BMC Medical Ethics, my colleague Declan Fahy and I analyze the journalistic and critical reception of Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-selling book The Immortal Life of […]
In a column this week at Time magazine, Michael Grunwald says he’s on the side of activists who oppose the XL Tar Sands pipeline and chides the “respectable centrist pundits” […]
Over at The Breakthrough, I have a Public Square post up discussing the need for the environmental movement to broaden and diversify their public outreach, connecting in particular with minority […]
For a study I am working on this semester while on sabbatical at Harvard University, I wanted to try to estimate book publishing trends over time related to climate change, […]
For readers in the Boston area, I will be giving a talk at Boston University’s College of Communication on Thursday, December 6   The talk is a preview of the […]
If you live in an American city, chances are this past summer and fall you have experienced the health effects of climate change.  As Richard Harris reported at NPR News in September, […]