KINGSTON, R.I. – Nov. 30, 2023 – Andrew Hoffman, professor of sustainable enterprise at the University of Michigan, will close out this year’s Honors Colloquium, “Not Business As Usual: Business for the Common Good,” on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
A noted thought leader shaping the future of business education, Hoffman’s visit to URI will help launch a second century of impact from URI’s College of Business.
This is the 60th edition of the University’s premier lecture series, which this year marks the centennial of the College of Business. This year’s slate of speakers asked audiences to think beyond traditional ways to impact communities for good.
“We are so grateful to all of the guest speakers who brought their wisdom and expertise to the colloquium and who were so fantastic with our honors students,” says Doug Creed, a URI professor of business who coordinated the fall colloquium with Christy Ashley, associate dean of the College of Business, and business professor Seray Ergene. “We are very lucky to have professor Andy Hoffman close the series.”
Hoffman is the Holcim Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, a position that holds joint appointments in the Stephen Ross School of Business and the School for Environment and Sustainability. He has published over 100 articles and book chapters, and 18 books that have been translated into six languages. His most recent books, published by Stanford University Press, are The Engaged Scholar: Expanding the Impact of Academic Research in Today’s World and Management as a Calling: Leading Business, Serving Society. His book From Heresy to Dogma: An Institutional History of Corporate Environmentalism received the Rachel Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science and his book Builder’s Apprentice was selected for a Connecticut Book Award.
“Professor Hoffman is a preeminent scholar whose work has immeasurably advanced the ways academia and society think about and engage with sustainability and environment management,” says Sean Edmund Rogers, dean of the College of Business. “We’re beyond fortunate to be able to welcome him to URI to speak with our students and members of the campus community.”
Hoffman will speak at 7 p.m. at Edwards Hall on the Kingston Campus. The talk will also be streamed live (video link available the day of the event). Past lectures in the series are available online.
Hoffman studies how environmental issues emerge and evolve as social, political and managerial issues. He also writes about the reasons people reject the science of climate change, and the role of academic scholars in public and political discourse. He has won numerous research, writing and teaching awards for his work, including the Aspen Institute Faculty Pioneer Award and the American Chemical Society National Award. His work has been covered in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Scientific American, Time, Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Atlantic and National Public Radio. He has served on numerous research committees for the National Academies of Science, the Johnson Foundation, the Climate Group, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development and the Environmental Defense Fund.
Prior to academics, Hoffman worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the New England region. He has a doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in management and civil and environmental engineering.
Hosted by the University’s Honors Program, the URI Honors Colloquium is free and open to the public. The Honors Colloquium will return in September 2024 examining “Democracy in Peril.”
Register to get updates and reminders here or by emailing urihonors@etal.uri.edu.