Summary
Jesse L. Barnes is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Political Science Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is working on the National Science Foundation (NSF) project "Transition Dynamics in Integrated Urban Water Systems" under Dr. Elizabeth Koebele. His work focuses on environmental policy. His teaching interests and experience focus on U.S. environmental policy and urban governance.
Barnes’s research utilizes interdisciplinary theory and methods to deduce robust explanations and solutions for 21st-century environmental governance issues with emphasis placed on local governments in the United States. His work can be found in multiple peer-reviewed journals such as The American Review of Public Administration, Journal of Cleaner Production, and Water Resources Management.
Barnes received his Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he also earned the UNLV Social Science Research Methods Graduate Certificate. He won the 2023 Best Dissertation Award from the College of Urban Affairs for his work examining enforcement and compliance dilemmas between institutionally separate but biophysically linked water policies in the United States. He received his M.S. in Water Resources Management from the UNLV College of Sciences, where he was an NSF-funded research assistant. He won the 2020 Outstanding Thesis Award from the Geoscience Department for his work examining hydrophobic soils and evaporative water loss. As a first-generation college student, Barnes proudly earned his B.A. in Political Science from UC Berkeley.
Research interests
- Environmental governance
- Water policy
- Federalism
- Local government
- Public perceptions
Courses taught
- Urban Governance in the United States
- Environmental Policy
- Introduction to Environmental Science
- Introduction to Climate Change
Education
- Ph.D., Public Affairs, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2023
- M.S., Water Resources Management, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2019
- B.A., Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2016