Mukul Kumar
Assistant Professor, Urban Planning and Public Policy
School of Social Ecology
School of Social Ecology
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
M.Phil., University of Cambridge
M.Phil., University of Cambridge
University of California, Irvine
218D Social Ecology 1
Mail Code: 7075
Irvine, CA 92697
218D Social Ecology 1
Mail Code: 7075
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Fossil fuel divestment; environmental justice; urban studies; political economy; borders, migration, and the climate crisis; Asian and Asian American studies
Websites
Research Abstract
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. My research investigates the limits and possibilities of shifting finance away from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon futures in ways that repair historical injustices.
My first book project, Divesting from Fossil Fuels: Why Decarbonization is Not Enough (University of California Press, Fall 2027), follows land-based struggles against extractive mines, pipelines, and ports across the Asia Pacific and the United States. Drawing on transnational comparisons and connections, the book delineates how fossil fuel divestment movements have deployed land-based modalities of struggle, including blockades, counter-mapping, and litigation, to challenge structures of authoritarianism and state-sanctioned violence. Tracing the intermeshed modalities of divestment campaigns across global fossil fuel and financial supply chains, the book illustrates how and why movements to divest from fossil fuels must not be severed from land-based struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice.
My research has been featured in a variety of scholarly as well as popular forums, including Verso, Equator, BBC Radio 4, Outlook Planet, Energy World, Economic and Political Weekly, and the Centre Tricontinental. In the past, I have worked on fossil fuel divestment, labor, and environmental justice campaigns, both on and off campus. I continue to collaborate with faculty, staff, students, and movement-based activists on campaigns focused on shifting finance away from fossil fuels.
My first book project, Divesting from Fossil Fuels: Why Decarbonization is Not Enough (University of California Press, Fall 2027), follows land-based struggles against extractive mines, pipelines, and ports across the Asia Pacific and the United States. Drawing on transnational comparisons and connections, the book delineates how fossil fuel divestment movements have deployed land-based modalities of struggle, including blockades, counter-mapping, and litigation, to challenge structures of authoritarianism and state-sanctioned violence. Tracing the intermeshed modalities of divestment campaigns across global fossil fuel and financial supply chains, the book illustrates how and why movements to divest from fossil fuels must not be severed from land-based struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice.
My research has been featured in a variety of scholarly as well as popular forums, including Verso, Equator, BBC Radio 4, Outlook Planet, Energy World, Economic and Political Weekly, and the Centre Tricontinental. In the past, I have worked on fossil fuel divestment, labor, and environmental justice campaigns, both on and off campus. I continue to collaborate with faculty, staff, students, and movement-based activists on campaigns focused on shifting finance away from fossil fuels.
Publications
Divesting from Fossil Fuels: Why Decarbonization is Not Enough. University of California Press, Fall 2027.
"Rethinking fossil fuel divestment: Land, labor, and crises of overaccumulation," Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 139 (2026), 104891.
"Violent Transitions: Towards a Political Ecology of Coal and Hydropower in India," Climate and Development, 16, 9 (2024), 751-761.
"Des transitions injustes vers le charbon et l’hydroélectricité en Inde," In Aurélie Leroy ed., Dissidences dans la nouvelle Inde, Alternative Sud, XXXI, n°2 (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique: Centre Tricontinentale, 2024), 79-99.
"Environmental Racism and the Global Political Ecology of Industrial Disasters," Ecology, Economy and Society-the INSEE Journal, 6, 2 (2023), 197-204.
"Fossil Neoliberalism and its Limits: Governing Coal in South India," Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5, 4 (2022), 1853–1871.
"Disassembling Coal: Finance Capital, Environmental Law, and the Right to Information in South India," Antipode, 53, 4 (2021), 1124-1142.
"Rethinking fossil fuel divestment: Land, labor, and crises of overaccumulation," Energy Research & Social Science, Vol. 139 (2026), 104891.
"Violent Transitions: Towards a Political Ecology of Coal and Hydropower in India," Climate and Development, 16, 9 (2024), 751-761.
"Des transitions injustes vers le charbon et l’hydroélectricité en Inde," In Aurélie Leroy ed., Dissidences dans la nouvelle Inde, Alternative Sud, XXXI, n°2 (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique: Centre Tricontinentale, 2024), 79-99.
"Environmental Racism and the Global Political Ecology of Industrial Disasters," Ecology, Economy and Society-the INSEE Journal, 6, 2 (2023), 197-204.
"Fossil Neoliberalism and its Limits: Governing Coal in South India," Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5, 4 (2022), 1853–1871.
"Disassembling Coal: Finance Capital, Environmental Law, and the Right to Information in South India," Antipode, 53, 4 (2021), 1124-1142.
Grants
University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship
University of California Humanities Research Institute Residential Research Group Fellowship
Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship
University of California, Berkeley Chancellor's Fellowship
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=7309
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=7309
Last updated
08/17/2026
08/17/2026