Professor Benjamin Cashore, Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP), National University of Singapore (NUS), has been named the recipient of 2025 distinguished scholar award from the International Studies Association’s Environmental Studies Section (ESS). This prestigious honour was formally recognised at the ISA Annual Convention in Chicago on 4 March 2025.
The award recognises scholars who have made significant and lasting contributions to environmental policy and governance research and mentoring.
In their remarks, the ESS adjudication committee said that Prof Cashore’s problem-oriented approach has expanded his original training as a political scientist to integrate, and make contributions to, “multiple fields, including international relations, comparative politics, public policy, public administration, and business and management studies.”
The committee noted that Prof Cashore’s curiosity has led him to apply attention to environmental and sustainability challenges spanning the globe, including management of forests and natural resources, tackling climate change, and fostering more inclusive and effective governance mechanisms.
Former students and colleagues who attended the award ceremony highlighted Prof Cashore’s contribution to understanding novel forms of governance, including his characterisation of transnational eco-labelling systems as “non-state market driven” (NSMD) global governance, and his exploration and conceptualisation, with students and colleagues, of climate change as a “super wicked” problem.
The committee also recognised Prof Cashore’s role as an accomplished educator and mentor “that has [fostered] an environment of academic excellence and intellectual curiosity”, noting that “he has not only supervised many doctoral students over the last quarter century, but has also hosted numerous visiting scholars and postdoctoral researchers.”
The committee highlighted Prof Cashore’s interests in learning from, and nurturing, multiple communities: “[He] has played an important role in making the field more diverse and inclusive. Through his extensive collaborations with scholars from multiple disciplines and regions — including those from the Global South and underrepresented groups — he has strengthened the global network of environmental studies researchers. His dedication to fostering diversity has significantly broadened the scope and impact of environmental governance scholarship.”
Prof Cashore himself noted during the ceremony that his multi-disciplinary “bumble bee” curiosity has been nurtured by experiencing very different scholarly environments including Canadian political science departments, Harvard through the lens of a Fulbright scholar, professional forestry schools, and Yale’s Environment School where he was a professor of Environmental Governance and Political Science for 18 years before taking up his position at LKSYPP. Prof Cashore noted in his remarks that he enjoys contributing new knowledge to existing practice oriented scholarly environments: “At Yale, I was a policy scholar in an environment school, and now I am as environmental scholar in a policy school.”
The ESS committee concluded, “this award is a testament to his far-reaching influence on both scholarship and practice. [Prof Cashore’s] work continues to shape the future of environmental governance, inspiring researchers, policymakers, and students worldwide.”
The ESS is the formal home for International Studies Association’s members, conference participants, and scholars, who seek to generate lessons from their research for understanding better the social science and humanities dimensions of global environmental challenges. The ESS network includes academics and researchers from North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, Asia and other parts of the Global South.