The RENEW Institute - A Multidisciplinary Initiative
Events
RENEW hosts a number of events throughout the year to spark conversation, build cross-disciplinary collaborations and nurture community.
October 22, 2026
Air Pollution, Measurement, and Democracy
Peter Ore
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Director of Queens Data Lab, Queens College, CUNY
Presented by the UB Humanities Institute Science in Society Workshop and the UB RENEW Institute.
Dr. Ore will discuss the formal development of international air pollution monitoring networks, in particular how the US Clean Air Acts of the 1950s and 1960s combined principles from both sides of the Atlantic, yielding both durability and high technical standards in what eventually became the US EPA's Air Quality System. This monitoring system is one of the foundations of today's response to climate change. With all its flaws, he will argue that it harbors the potential for a more robust, democratic form of atmospheric governance.
Peter Ore's work includes the history of environmental bureaucracy, examining two major cases of public knowledge in the 20th century United States, the Federal air pollution control technocracy and the development of sociology itself.
DATE: Thursday October 22, 2026
TIME: 2-3:30 p.m.
LOCATION: 474 Park Hall, UB North Campus
Event Flyer (PDF)
For more information, visit https://humanitiesinstitute.buffalo.edu/, or contact
Dr. Jordan Fox at jfox22@buffalo.edu