Kieren Rudge (they/them) is a PhD candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, & Management at University of California Berkeley. Their dissertation critically analyzes military-led climate change adaptation through a comparative case study in two locations across the U.S. empire: the island territory of Guåhan (Guam) and San Diego County, California in the mainland. Kieren’s work has been published in journals such as Nature Climate Change, Environmental Development, and Urban Climate.

Kieren is also a co-founder of the Critical Pacific Islands Studies Collective (CPISC), a growing network of scholar-activists who conduct interdisciplinary applied research, mentor students, and support the equitable study of the Pacific. Outside of UC Berkeley, they serve as an instructor at Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, where they teach Ethnic Studies, emphasizing environmental justice activism and systemic racism in urban planning. They have an MESc from Yale University and a BS from Johns Hopkins University.