Northern Illinois University
Department of Political Science
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Emphasis

• International Relations
• Environmental Politics
• Global Governance
• Pro-Environmental Behavior
• Sustainability

Overview of Scholarly Activity

Colin Kuehl (Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara) is a jointly appointed associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy. His research and teaching interests are at the intersection of international relations and environmental politics. Broadly, his research analyzes the social determinants of pro-environmental behavior across differing issues, places, and scales. Often employing an interdisciplinary approach he has published in Nature: Sustainability, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Environmental Behavior, and Science Communication. He is also a faculty affiliate in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

Dr. Kuehl teaches courses on environmental policy, international relations, international political economy and research methods. He often includes undergraduate research assistants in his work. This includes current projects on environmental communication, social media, and efforts to ratify a global plastic treaty.

Selected Publications

Kuehl, C., Alahmadi, E., Buck, T., Guthrie, C., Meyers, O., Sedig, Q., ... & Jones, H. P. (2025). Humans are helpful: centering people in restoration messaging increases their likelihood of engaging in some restoration actions. Restoration Ecology, e70155.

Kuehl, C. (2025). Tweeting to Conserve: An Analysis of Water District Messaging During the California Drought. In Environmental Policy Science’s Exploration for Innovative Data (pp. 29-47. Springer Nature

Yuan, S., & Kuehl, C. (2023). Exploring the influence of aggressive and target-framing messages on proenvironmental behaviors. Science Communication, 45(2), 225-251.

Kuehl, C., Sparks, A. C., Hodges, H., & Smith, E. R. (2021). The incoherence of sustainability literacy assessed with the Sulitest. Nature Sustainability, 4(6), 555-560.

Hodges, H., Kuehl, C., Anderson, S. E., Ehret, P. J., & Brick, C. (2020). How managers can reduce household water use through communication: A field experiment. Journal of policy analysis and management, 39(4), 1076-1099.