Working Areas

Disaster Researchers for Justice (DRJ) will serve as a meeting ground for global affinity groups aligned towards disaster justice in five main areas.

  • DRJ will serve as a resource for journalists reporting on disasters, connecting them with relevant experts and correcting harmful myths as they arise

  • DRJ will serve as a resource for activists and communities working in pursuit of disaster justice

  • DRJ will encourage the application of a justice lens to existing disaster scholarship and support the development and dissemination of new collaborative research in the field

  • DRJ will support efforts to integrate disaster justice and related perspectives into disaster education and training

  • DRJ will advocate for just disaster policy within government and organizations, and serve as a resource to policymakers

Work Supported by DRJ

  • National Disaster Safety Board

    A National Disaster Safety Board would assess the effectiveness of the nation’s disaster preparedness, response, and recovery actions and identify ways we can improve. Like the highly successful National Transportation Safety Board, the NDSB would investigate the root causes of deaths, injuries, and damage and provide fact-based recommendations for the future.”

    The proposed NDSB, as part of an overall emergency management reform effort in America, offers the chance to leverage decades worth of data, human capital, and technology to inform its investigative work. In a time when our national risk is increasing due to decades of bad development decisions, centuries of discriminatory policy, and climate change the need to transform how we address disaster is more urgent than ever.”

  • COVID Commission Planning Group

    “True accountability depends upon the timely completion of a successful investigation that is spearheaded by a non-partisan, independent, trusted commission. It must be comprehensive in scope, take into account the lived experiences of those harmed by the pandemic, and not be subject to the whim of self-serving politicians.”

  • Resources for Journalists

    DRJ is currently compiling resources for journalists reporting on disasters, including a contact database of relevant experts, fact sheets, and other resources.