Amanda Sie

About Me

Hi! I'm Amanda Sie, a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University. My research focuses on climate change, technology, and risk. I'm currently working on my dissertation about solar geoengineering, a proposed method to reduce Earth's surface temperatures.

I received my M.A. in Sociology at Rutgers University in 2022, based on a paper about public support for renewable energy policies in the US. I earned my B.A. at Boston College in 2017, where I was a proud member of the first cohort of students in the Environmental Studies major.

Contact Information

amanda.sie@rutgers.edu
Department of Sociology
Rutgers University
26 Nichol Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Recent News

March 2025: Presented at the Eastern Sociological Society Conference in Boston, MA

Research Interests

My work is rooted in the subfield of environmental sociology, with additional interest in science and technology studies.

Climate Engineering

If environmental sociologists want to know what the role of technology is in addressing human-caused environmental problems, climate engineering might be the most interesting contemporary case to answer those questions. What does climate engineering tell us about the ways we perceive and understand climate change risks? My dissertation is a deep dive on solar geoengineering (also called solar radiation management, or SRM), and I've been using qualitative methods to study how SRM researchers are shaping climate risk and risk governance through their work. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is also on my mind, and I investigate public perceptions of both CDR and SRM in forthcoming publications.

Energy policy

I have dabbled in researching US and international energy politics and policies from various angles, but still have lots to learn to gain a solid understanding of the sociology of energy. I am hoping to develop a new project on nuclear and renewable energy in relation to the explosion of energy-intense AI.

My first qualifying paper (equivalent of master's paper) used NSEE data to look at whether people in states with higher levels of existing renewable energy were more likely to support renewable energy policies. There were many problems with the paper and mostly no interesting results.
I provided the literature review on a paper with one of my undergraduate mentors, Andrew Jorgenson, about EU energy policies. I think I read the same sources at least 20 times each trying to figure out the weird intricacies of EU policies.

Publications and Presentations

Articles and Writing

Sie, Amanda. 2024. “Climate Engineering: Worth the Risks?” in Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society, 2nd Ed, edited by S. R. Brechin and S. Lee. Routledge.

PDF DOI

Jorgenson, Andrew K., Wesley Longhofer, Don Grant, Amanda Sie, and Vincentas Giedraitis. 2017. “The Effects of Economic and Political Integration on Power Plants’ Carbon Emissions in the Post-Soviet Transition Nations.” Environmental Research Letters 12(4):044009.

PDF DOI

Forthcoming

Sie, Amanda, Steven R. Brechin, and Christopher Borick. “Geoengineering prioritization: a study of a proposed expression of mitigation deterrence,” submitted to Climatic Change.

PDF DOI

Sie, Amanda, Frederic Traylor. “Moral Hazard of Carbon Dioxide Removal and Solar Radiation Management in the US,” submitting to Energy Research and Social Science.

PDF DOI

Conference Presentations

2025

Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, MA

Environmental sociology mini-conference, Session IV: Resilience and Climate Response

“The Role of Justice and Equity in Solar Geoengineering Research”

2024

Eastern Sociological Society, Washington, DC

Presidential Theme: Science and Technology Studies

“Should Solar Geoengineering Research Happen?: How Modelers Respond”

Climate Engineering Gordon Research Conference, Lucca, Italy

Poster Presentation

“Effect of Information on Climate Engineering Public Perceptions and Climate Resource Allocation”

2023

American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA

Environmental Sociology Section, Production and Management of Environmental Risks Roundtable

“Changing Concepts of Risk in Justifying Solar Geoengineering”

Eastern Sociological Society Baltimore, MD

Environmental sociology mini-conference paper session: Envisioning climate change mitigation across multiple scales

“Contingencies of Geoengineering’s Moral Hazard Problem”

Teaching

Courses Taught

Both of the courses I have taught have been online, and I have a lot of feelings about it!

Introduction to Sociology

Term: Fall 2024

Online course for 55 students. I created videos on fundamental sociology topics with interactive elements for student engagement. I am itching to teach a 101 again because there are about one million things I'd like to do differently from this first time. I'd also like to teach it in-person.

Environmental Sociology

Term: Fall 2023

An upper level course focused on the theories of environmental sociology, comparing material and idealist lenses for understanding the relationship between society and the environment. Writing-heavy course with memos and a semester-long research project. This was my first time teaching my own course, and it was difficult to say the least. My love for environmental sociology was probably the thing that kept me from fully giving up at certain points in the semester. I learned that more is not always better.

Teaching Assistant Courses

Social Research Methods

Term: Spring 2025

Instructor: Chris Drue

Online course. Contributed to video lectures, graded and provided in-depth feedback for student assignments. Dr. Drue has taught me a lot about how to effectively teach a highly engaging and interesting course online, and I have learned so much from TAing this course.

Colors of Health

Term: Spring 2024

Instructor: Dawne Mouzon

Led two recitation sections per week. Provided additional content to review course materials and concepts, and led group and class activities to engage students. This course was a lot of fun to TA because even though it was slightly outside my area of expertise, I could still bring in a lot from environmental justice and I learned that intro classes should absolutely lean in to compelling stories to drive interest in sociology.

Politics of Environmental Issues

Terms: Fall 2019, Spring and Fall 2020 (virtual), Spring 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023

Instructor: Ethan Schoolman

Led three recitation sections (25 students each) per week. Reviewed course concepts through engaging group activities and discussions. Helped develop semester-long research project during transition to virtual in 2020, which became a mainstay of the course. I learned so much TAing this course for three years--I developed my teaching style in recitations, came up with lots of fun activities that drew from my experiences just trying to figure out what was going on in politics, and learned how to connect with students and what doesn't work with them (scolding doesn't work, oops).

Curriculum Vitae

Last updated March 2025.

Download CV (PDF)