Drawing on the research conducted for the textbook, Climate Crisis, Energy Violence: Mapping Fossil Energy's Enduring Grasp on our Precarious Future, Dr. Finley-Brook will walk us through the ways unregulated AI use and data center growth has and could impact data literacy, academic freedom, climate action and more. Dr. Finley-Brook will also explain protections concerned leaders are proposing to address this growing issue.
Please register to attend this virtual event. Contact mzimmerman@alexlibraryva.org for more information.
Mary Finley-Brook is a Professor of Geography and Global Studies at the University of Richmond, where she has taught since 2006. Finley-Brook has decades of experience conducting participatory action research and collaborates regularly with community-based organizations and frontline populations to advance climate justice in energy sector transformation. Her interests include environmental policy, climate justice, public health, energy transition, affordable access to renewable energy technologies, and equity in environmental, climate and energy governance. She has served on review panels for the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. Finely-Brook is co-author of the textbook Climate Crisis, Energy Violence with Academic Press (2024). Her research has been published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Energy Research and Social Science, Geopolitics, International Forestry Review, Water Alternatives and William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review. Finley-Brook recommended the creation of the Virginia Governor's Advisory Council on Environmental Justice to the Northam Administration and was a founding member. She conducted participatory research with the Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative (2015-2023). Current collaborations with community partners include green workforce training with Bridging the Gap in Virginia and energy justice initiatives in Puerto Rico with Comité Diálogo Ambiental.
