Scholars
Jessica OReilly
Indiana University
Based in
United States
North America
Jessica O’Reilly, Associate Professor of International Studies at Indiana University Bloomington, is an environmental anthropologist who explores the relationship between science and policy, particularly through international institutions. She has conducted research with Antarctic scientists and policy makers, culminating in The Technocratic Antarctic: an ethnography of scientific expertise and environmental governance (Cornell 2017). She has a longstanding research project on the cultural, institutional, and epistemic practices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in Inside the IPCC (Cambridge 2024) and the forthcoming monograph Science in the Balance. O’Reilly advises at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings and observes UNFCCC meetings.
Country(ies) of Specialty
United StatesFocus areas of expertise
Climate policy and politics Scientific assessmentsHow to Connect
Publications
Articles
O’Reilly, Jessica, Kari De Pryck, and Hannah Hughes. “Taking stock of the IPCC: analysis from AR6.” Climatic Change 178.8 (2025): 146.
O’Reilly, Jessica, and Michael Oppenheimer. “The curve: An ethnography of projecting sea level rise under uncertainty.” Global Environmental Change 89 (2024): 102947.
O’Reilly, Jessica Leigh, et al. Inside the IPCC: how assessment practices shape climate knowledge. Cambridge University Press, 2024.
O’Reilly, Jessica, et al. “Climate change: expanding anthropological possibilities.” Annual Review of Anthropology 49.1 (2020): 13-29.
Oppenheimer, Michael, Naomi Oreskes, Dale Jamieson, Keynyn Brysse, Jessica O’Reilly, Matthew Shindell, and Milena Wazeck. “Discerning Experts: The Practices of Scientific Assessment for Environmental Policy.” University of Chicago Press (2019).
O’Reilly, Jessica. “The substance of climate: Material approaches to nature under environmental change.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 9.6 (2018): e550.
O’Reilly, Jessica. The technocratic Antarctic: an ethnography of scientific expertise and environmental governance. Cornell University Press, 2017.