Shardul Tiwari

University of Toronto

Based in

Canada
North America

Dr. Tiwari is a postdoctoral fellow affiliated with the Department of Political Science and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on energy justice, policy, and transition innovation. He joined the University of Toronto after receiving a PhD in Environment and Energy Policy from the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University.

For his PhD dissertation, Dr. Tiwari employed socio-economic and legal frameworks to examine the development of Pumped Underground Storage Hydro (PUSH) in abandoned underground mines in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This research was part of a broader study funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He also explored the techno-spatial potential for developing energy storage in various brownfield sites (abandoned mines) across the United States.

Dr. Tiwari’s long-term vision is to establish a social science researcher-led interdisciplinary energy transition lab for cold climates, with a geographical focus on the Arctic and the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. His goal is to better understand and collaborate with communities living at the periphery of energy infrastructure and directly affected by climate change. He is particularly interested in fostering connections between communities, researchers, and educators from the American and European Arctic with those from the HKH region.

Drawing on his lived experience in the HKH, Dr. Tiwari observes that communities in these regions often face similar challenges and share comparable lived experiences. He believes that creating collaborative spaces for these communities would provide meaningful learning and workforce development opportunities, while addressing shared threats posed by climate change. His work aims to engage northern communities often the most vulnerable and frequently excluded from decision-making around technology and governance in bottom-up conversations, initiated one community at a time.