Joshua Basseches grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, and became fascinated with politics at a young age. Basseches describes himself as a political sociologist by training, and he now focuses mainly on American public policy. He started on this path at Brandeis University, where he got his bachelor’s in political science and sociology. After undergrad, Basseches became a legislative aide for a state senator, narrowing his focus to public policy before he went on to graduate school at Northwestern. While at Northwestern he received a Ph.D. in Sociology and wrote a dissertation examining sources of variation in the design of economy-wide greenhouse gas and renewable portfolio standards policies in three “blue states,” with minimal in-state coal-fired and gas-fired electricity production. His current research is focused on expanding his dissertation to include red states and incorporating a distributive politics approach to determine who pays the short-term costs of transitioning to a clean energy economy.
Basseches has completed fieldwork in five U.S. state capitals and is in the process of completing fieldwork in three more right now, while he is on a semester-long research leave. He has interviewed over 160 current and former state-level policymakers, advocates, and lobbyists and has analyzed tens of thousands of pages of archival documents. Basseches is proud of his recent co-authored publication in Climatic Change, “Climate Conflict in the U.S. States: A Critical Review and Way Forward,” which examines the current obstacles to robust state-level climate policy and offers solutions from social science research.
Before joining Tulane, Basseches was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan for two years; during this time, he collaborated on new projects and successfully pursued grant funding. He chose Tulane for its supportive colleagues and the opportunity to collaborate with his Flowerree professorship counterpart, studying sea level rise in the School of Science and Engineering. Basseches is looking forward to completing his first book at Tulane, tentatively titled Buying Off Business: The Politics of Climate and Renewable Energy Policy Design in the U.S. States. Basseches also describes the added sense of purpose that doing his work in New Orleans brings; the city’s vulnerability to climate change, particularly sea level rise, makes his research doubly important and impactful. He characterizes New Orleans as “a magical place,” and particularly enjoys the local cuisine, including GW Fins and fried shrimp po boys. More than anything, Basseches is excited to continue his research in this vibrant city. We at the Political Science department welcome Professor Baseches and encourage students to get involved with his climate and energy policy research.