Dr. Jade S. Sasser

Feminist scholar of climate justice, reproductive politics, and the future

Created by Wichai Wifrom the Noun Project

Award-winning feminist scholar

Reproductive Politics

Gender and Climate Change

Household Energy

At A Glance

Dr. Jade S. Sasser is a writer and educator whose work focuses on gender, climate justice, and reproductive politics. She is also preoccupied with questions around gendered access to household energy in the global South, and how the climate crisis shapes our emotions about—and the ways we create—the future. She is an award-winning author and Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside.

Award-winning feminist scholar

Sasser is the author of On Infertile Ground, an award-winning book that details how environmentalists have shaped the narrative on population control and reproductive rights in an era of climate change. The book offers a feminist perspective on the importance of aligning reproductive justice and climate justice efforts to protect marginalized communities.

Gender and climate justice

Sasser’s research looks at the role of gender in shaping approaches to parenting in a climate altered future. She also studies how race and gender shape climate emotions, as well as the role and impacts of gender justice in climate justice leadership.

Reproductive politics

Sasser’s work has long focused on the politics of reproduction, specifically how environmental concerns with human numbers have shaped international development interventions. She also studies the role of reproductive justice in expanding social justice narratives around contraception, parenting, and environmental sustainability.

Household energy

Sasser conducts community-based research on household energy use, specifically biomass-based cooking, and how cooking interventions are shifting household dynamics across the global South.

My book-

On Infertile Ground: Population Control And Women's Rights In The Era Of Climate Change

Since the turn of the millennium, American media, scientists, and environmental activists have insisted that the global population crisis is “back”—and that the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change is to ensure women’s universal access to contraception. Did the population problem ever disappear? What is bringing it back—and why now? In On Infertile Ground, Jade S. Sasser explores how a small network of international development actors, including private donors, NGO program managers, scientists, and youth advocates, is bringing population back to the center of public environmental debate. While these narratives never disappeared, Sasser argues, histories of human rights abuses, racism, and a conservative backlash against abortion in the 1980s drove them underground—until now.

Latest News and Publications

Latest Publications

Op-Ed: The Complex Link Between Population Decline and a Warming Planet


The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give

-Mary McLeod Bethune