INTRO

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Dr. Meg Boyle studies climate and environmental governance. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies (with emphasis on international environmental policy) at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Dr. Boyle holds a BA in Biology and Environmental Studies from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine; an MPA from the Evans School at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington; and a PhD in Geography from Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. She has also studied in Denmark.

Dr. Boyle has worked on climate and environmental issues—and with students on related topics—for over two decades. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Dr. Boyle spent several years in Washington D.C. as a climate and environmental grantmaker, network and coalition convener, policy analyst, and advocate.

Now, Dr. Boyle works with students on topics of climate and environmental justice, sustainable food systems, international climate and environmental policy, and the social sciences' contributions to environmental studies. Her work supports collective efforts to envision the future of international climate and environmental cooperation, as well as to understand how the structures of policies and processes can better support outcomes rooted in science, equity, and stakeholders' own aims. 

Across all of her prior roles, Dr. Boyle's consistent commitments have been four-fold: supporting leadership development opportunities for students and young people; advancing institutions that work on the basis of science and equity; furthering responsible global citizenship by the United States; and,  enhancing people's access to the decision-making processes that affect their lives.

Broadly, Dr. Boyle considers the ‘how’ of climate change policy. She looks at the ‘containers’—the agreements and meeting processes—that hold international efforts at climate progress. 

More specifically, Dr. Boyle’s work helps us to understand climate governance by:

-Looking at why it matters that international climate policy is centered in national governments and nation states—particularly as this relates to the national development identities of major emerging economies. She also studies problem definition and considers how the ways we frame problems as national and global leads us to these types of state-centric processes. 

-Exploring the design and architecture of international multi-stakeholder negotiations and policy processes to address climate and environmental problems—and especially, how these processes do (and do not) incorporate and reflect principles of procedural justice.

-Considering big-picture, long-term questions about how international climate policy processes and agreements can and should change in the future, including for instance convening on some basis other than nation states; better responding to affected communities; and/or better responding to acute (in addition to slow-onset) climate crises. 

-Articulating common drivers, solutions, and lessons across global challenges, in particular by understanding geopolitical considerations that inform responses to crises such as pandemics and food insecurity as well as climate change. Dr. Boyle’s work often involves looking at lived individual and community experiences of policy processes at the intersections of climate change and these challenges.

Dr. Boyle enjoys working across disciplines, including with scholars and practitioners of civic studies; policy analysis; governance; international climate law and policy; global change; development; food security; climate justice; and, multi-stakeholder process design.

Currently, Dr. Boyle teaches courses on sustainable international food systems, international environmental and climate justice, global climate policy, international environmental policy, and environmental studies from a social sciences perspective.

Other well-developed course proposals she hopes to teach in the near future include courses on pandemic-environment/climate connections, connections between international marine conservation and international climate policy, and principles of multi-stakeholder environmental conflict resolution. 

The full suite of courses she is well-equipped to teach as needed includes Research Methods; Environmental Policy Analysis; Climate and Security; Global Environmental and Climate Citizenship; Climate and Environmental Justice; Climate Loss and Damage, Adaptation, Vulnerability, and Finance; Climate and Environmental Movements; Environmental Politics and Political Speech; Climate Careers; Human-Environment Interactions (Interdisciplinary); International Environmental Policy; Multistakeholder Environmental Conflict Resolution; Pandemic-Environment Connections; Climate as Crisis; International Food Systems; Marine Conservation and the Climate; Climate and Environmental Philanthropy; Development and Sustainable Development; and, Just Transitions and Green Recovery. 

Dr. Boyle has previously worked with students at institutions including the University of Washington, Penn State University, American University’s School of International Service, and UCLA Extension. She has experience working with students at the undergraduate and graduate level, with online and in-person formats, with large and small classes, with introductory and upper-level courses, and with student advising.

Over the years, she has also supported students’ learning outside the classroom through volunteer service with scholarship retreats for the Udall Foundation and with youth climate movement trainings.

Dr. Boyle also has significant professional experience developing online and in-person curricula for adult learners and practitioners, including for academic, private sector, non-profit, and government clients. 

She seeks ongoing training in best practices in supporting diversity and inclusion and has extensive experience working in international and cross-cultural contexts.

She is invested in supporting service learning, professional development, and experiential learning opportunities. She is also planning future projects to redesign teaching materials that reflect different histories of/perspectives on international climate and environmental cooperation.

Please contact Dr. Boyle here: