Thea Riofrancos

Associate Professor of Political Science, Providence College, Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, Fellow at the Transnational Institute

White lotus branch

Washington and Lee University The Roger Mudd Center for Ethics Programs and Events 2025-2026: Taking Place: Land Use and Environmental Impact Thea Riofrancos
Mudd Center

Public Lecture Title: The Ethics of Extraction: How “Green” is the Energy Transition?”

Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 5:10 pm, Stackhouse Theater

Thea Riofrancos
Thea Riofrancos
Thea Riofrancos’ research focuses on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, the global lithium sector, green technologies, social movements, and the Latin American left. She is the author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2025) and Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), and the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Her publications have appeared in scholarly journals such as Global Environmental Politics, World Politics, and Perspectives on Politics, as well as in media outlets including The New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, n+1, Dissent, and more.

Mudd Center

The Mudd Center

  • Washington and Lee University
    209 Mattingly House
    Lexington, VA 24450

Melissa R. Kerin

Director

Kate Saacke

Senior Program Coordinator

Daniel Ranweiler

Postdoctoral Fellow