Rebecca Laurent is pursuing a joint PhD in Sociology and in Civil Society and Community Research. Rebecca’s research explores the interactions of ideology, rhetoric, institutions, and identity that animate energy contestation in the US. In particular, she is interested in barriers to effective mitigation of the climate crisis, including the entanglement between oil and state, cultural hegemony of fossil fuels, and repression of environmental activism.
Rebecca obtained a master’s degree in 2021 in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her master’s thesis analyzed the criminalization of anti-pipeline protest in the United States and its effect on policing and resistance in Southern Louisiana. Rebecca obtained bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois in 2019.