Nancy J. Manring

Nancy Manring is Associate Professor of Political Science and founding Director of the Environmental Science and Sustainability major. She received her Ph.D. in Natural Resource Policy and Administration with an emphasis on environmental conflict and dispute resolution from the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources. She has an M.S. in Horticulture from Ohio State University, where she also received her B.S. in Landscape Horticulture, graduating summa cum laude.

Research Interests

Dr. Manring's research focuses on environmental politics. Her book, "A World of Wounds: Rebuilding a Bipartisan Environmental Movement and Cultivating Authentic Hope" (Stanford University Press, 2025) chronicles the politics and trajectory of the environmental movement in the United States; the penultimate chapter offers strategies for communicating across the partisan divide to rebuild a bipartisan environmental movement. Dr. Manring's earlier research focused on collaborative dispute resolution in U.S. Forest Service land management planning. Her work on democratic accountability in Forest Service planning was published in Society & Natural Resources, the Journal of Forestry, and Administration & Society. Her earlier work exploring the organizational implications of the adoption of environmental dispute resolution processes by the Forest Service was published in The Negotiation Journal, Public Administration Review, Society & Natural Resources, Administration & Society, American Review of Public Administration, and Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education.

Dr. Manring was the co-founder of the Kanawha Project, a multi-year project designed to enhance the undergraduate curriculum by integrating sustainability and climate change issues across disciplines through faculty professional development. Dr. Manring has developed and taught new courses on sustainability, environmental citizenship, and climate change politics. She was awarded the student-selected University Professor award in 2013. She has advised numerous theses for students in the Honors Tutorial College on a broad range of sustainability and environmental topics.

Publications

"A World of Wounds: Rebuilding a Bipartisan Environmental Movement and Cultivating Authentic Hope" (Stanford University Press, 2025)

Manring, Nancy J. 2025. "A New Story for the Environment," Stanford Social Innovation Review, 9 December 2025. (solicited adapted excerpt from my book).

Manring, Nancy J. 2025. "Conservation as Patriotism," Stanford University Press Blog, November 2025.