Julie Michelle Klinger

Faculty Associate
Assistant Professor, Pardee School of Global Studies
jklinger@bu.edu
617-358-2582

Education

PhD Geography, University of California, Berkeley

Expertise

Global political economy and political ecology; Natural resource geopolitics; Frontiers, conflict, and environmental security; China – Latin America relations; Outer space politics; Rare earth elements

Biography

Julie Michelle Klinger, PhD is Assistant Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, where she conducts research and teaches classes on global resource geopolitics, sustainable development, and environment and development in Latin America.

Klinger is the author of the forthcoming Rare Earth Frontiers: From Subterranean Soils to Lunar Landscapes (Cornell University Press). In it, Klinger examines the global geography of rare earth prospecting and mining, with a special emphasis on the development and geopolitics of resource frontiers in Brazil, China, and Outer Space. Klinger has also authored articles and commentaries on China-Brazil relations, China’s global integration, the environmental and security politics of rare earths, and contemporary outer space politics.

As a geographer, Klinger’s research emphasizes in-depth fieldwork to examine the processes through which resource frontiers are produced at local and global scales. She has worked extensively in rural and frontier regions in Brazil and China over the past decade to examine the gaps between (inter)national policy and local practice. She is committed to fostering international research collaboration.