One of environmental sociologist Simone Pulver’s go-to research methods is in-depth interviews. Often, she says, she’s meeting and speaking with people whose life experiences and world views are vastly different from her own. She loves it. “And that’s part of what I appreciate about reading,” says Pulver, an associate professor of environmental studies and director of UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Leadership Incubator. “It’s an opportunity to dip into worlds that I otherwise would never have access to, and to understand viewpoints and experiences that I think are absolutely central to navigating the complex world that we live in. Books let me do that.”
In her own words, here are five of Pulver's favorites:
