About

Professor Tony Arnold discusses the Resilience Justice Project with Resilience Justice Fellows Lauren Neal and Frank Bencomo-Suarez, as well as Brandeis law student and National Wildlife Federation legal intern Cameron Lyons.

The Resilience Justice Project addresses the inequitable vulnerabilities of communities, such as neighborhoods, to many different shocks and changes. Systems of injustice, inequality, marginalization and oppression have undermined the capacities of low-income communities of color to resist and adapt to shocks and changes. These shocks and changes include climate change, economic shocks, political change, disasters (e.g., flooding, heat, drought, wildfires), pollution, health crises and many other disruptions. Many low-income neighborhoods of color have both community-based resilience but also vulnerabilities that come from inequitable conditions and systems of unjust policies.


 The Resilience Justice Project is a team of researchers at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, led by Professor Tony Arnold, who:

  1. Develop interdisciplinary frameworks for seeing and understanding inequitable vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities;
  2. Do research on community resilience and injustices, from both systems approaches (e.g., systemic racism, anti-colonialism, resilience thinking) but also from human-oriented approaches, listening to words, experiences, and concerns of people who live in low-income communities of color;
  3. Engage with community residents, community-based organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies to analyze and address injustices;
  4. Identify or propose reforms to public policies in order to build the capacities, resources, and power of low-income communities of color; and
  5. Seek changes to systems of injustice in society and governance.