Helene Langlamet, Ph.D.

Helene Langlamet’s work lies at the intersection of political and environmental communication. Specifically, she studies the fossil fuel industry’s effort to influence public policy by lobbying the public.

Helene Langlamet has always had a focus on democratic norms in her research. Previously, she has looked at how the emergence of new online participatory norms has the potential to influence democratic participation. After the 2016 election, she developed an interest in the way the fossil fuel lobby affects electoral outcomes. Her dissertation studies how pro-capitalist norms structure local attitudes toward and resistance efforts against the fossil fuel industry in southwestern Pennsylvania through a combination of in-depth interviews, participant observation, archival research and textual analysis. After her defense, she hopes to pivot toward studying how the siting of energy projects can be made more democratic.