Distinguished environmental scholar and political scientist Barry G. Rabe will retire from the University of Michigan as of December 31, 2024.
He is currently the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and professor of public policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; professor of environmental policy, School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS); professor of environment, SEAS, and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA); and professor of political science, LSA.
"My Ford School appointment two decades ago coincided with my pivot toward research, teaching, and policy engagement focused on climate change,” Rabe reflects. “My years in Weill provided an exceptional environment to support this transition and I remain deeply grateful to so many students, faculty, and staff for their contributions to shaping this work."
Rabe is a widely acknowledged authority on climate policy who engages deeply with policy practitioners at international, national, and state levels to help solve critical challenges. He was the first social scientist to receive a Climate Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other notable awards include the Martha Derthick Award, American Political Science Association (APSA), the Daniel Elazar Award for Career Contribution to the Study of Federalism, APSA (2007), and the Lynton Keith Caldwell Award, APSA (2005). Rabe is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (2009-present).
Rabe has had extraordinary success as a teacher during his 39 years at Michigan. His contributions in this area are profound, ranging from his personal creativity in undergraduate course design, to his employment of innovative teaching techniques, and his long-standing service as an active and compassionate mentor and advisor.
Rabe examines the political feasibility and durability of environmental and energy policy, with a particular emphasis on efforts to address climate change in the United States and other nations. This includes ongoing study of the conditions under which political systems are capable of adopting market-based carbon pricing policies such as carbon taxes or cap-and-trade, as examined in his 2018 book Can We Price Carbon? (MIT Press).
Rabe's research regularly considers political and policy issues in the context of federalism, including his 2020 Brookings Institution Press co-authored book, Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism. Federalism also looms large in many of his previous publications, including such books as Greenhouse Governance (Brookings, 2010). Rabe is co-editor of one of the leading environmental politics and policy textbooks, Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century.
Rabe joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1985 as an assistant professor of health politics in the School of Public Health. He achieved tenure there in 1992 and became a professor in 1999. His appointment moved to the School of Natural Resources and Environment (now the School of Environment and Sustainability), where he was instrumental in the creation of the Program in the Environment and where he served as interim dean for two years. Rabe has had an active appointment in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy since 2001, and his tenured appointment was moved to the Ford School in 2009.
Rabe received his Bachelor of Arts degree (summa cum laude) from Carthage College in 1979. He completed a Master of Arts degree in 1980 and his doctorate in 1985 at the University of Chicago.
Rabe will continue his research, writing, and policy engagement in his post-Michigan career, periodically from Washington, D.C. He will continue as a Nonresident Brookings Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies Program and as a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center Canada Institute. Next fall, Rabe will be a Balsillie Scholar at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo, joining a team of scholars working on North American and global climate governance. He’ll be working on two books, The Other Gases: The Politics of Short-lived Climate Pollutants, along with a new edition of the environmental politics and policy textbook that he co-edits.
To alumni in the DC area, Rabe notes that he is always happy to hear from former students! His upcoming talks, publications, and commentaries will be available on his Brookings and Wilson Center bio pages.
