Susan Opotow
Professor
Graduate Program in Dispute Resolution
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 2125
Phone: (617) 287-7165
Fax: (617) 287-7412
Email: susan.opotow@umb.edu
Website: www.disres.umb.edu/opotow.php
Biographical Statement:
Susan Opotow is a Professor in the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Her work examines justice, conflict, and identity as they give rise to /moral exclusion/, that is, perceiving others (people, animals, and inanimate aspects of the natural world) as outside the scope of justice and as eligible targets of harm, exploitation, and violence. She studies moral exclusion in environmental contexts as well as in war, schools, and public policy disputes. Current research also examines the social psychology of /moral inclusion/ that extends the scope of justice more broadly. She co-edited /Identity and the natural environment: The psychological significance of nature/ (MIT Press, 2003, with Susan Clayton), is on the editorial board for /Human Ecology Review/, and is Associate Editor of /Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology. /She is an elected member of Council for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) and serves as its liaison to the United Nations and International Issues Committee.
Publications related to Conservation Psychology:
Opotow, S. (2003). What makes people care? Moral inclusion and conservation psychology. Human Ecology Review, 10(3), 166-167.
Clayton, S., & Opotow, S. (2003). Justice and identity: Changing perspectives on what is fair. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7(4), 298-310.
Clayton, S., & Opotow, S. (2003). Introduction: Identity and the natural environment. In S. Clayton & S. Opotow (Eds.), Identity and the natural environment: The psychological significance of nature (pp. 1-24). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Opotow, S., & Brook, A. (2003). Identity and exclusion in rangeland conflict. In S. Clayton & S. Opotow (Eds.), Identity and the natural environment: The psychological significance of nature (pp. 249-272). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Opotow, S., & Weiss, L. (2000). Denial and exclusion in environmental conflict. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 475-490.
Opotow, S. (1996). Is justice finite? The case of environmental inclusion. In L. Montada & M. Lerner (Eds.), Social justice in human relations: Current societal concerns about justice, Vol. 3 (pp. 213-230). New York: Plenum Press.
Opotow, S. (1994). Predicting protection: Scope of justice and the natural world. Journal of Social Issues, 50(2), 49-63.
Opotow, S., & Clayton, S. (1994). Green justice: Conceptions of fairness and the natural world. Journal of Social Issues, 50(3), 1-11.
Opotow, S. (1993). Animals and the scope of justice. Journal of Social Issues, 49(1), 71-85.
Research Interests:
Justice, conflict, and values in environmental conflict
The inclusion the natural environment in the scope of justice
The exclusion of aspects of the natural environment from in the scope of justice
Conservation of commons and the animate and inanimate environment
Environmental identity
Values in environmental conflict
Justice as invoked by right wing 'environmental' groups
