The Protest Project answers questions about protest participation: who participates, what motivates people to join activism in the streets, and how are protest participants connected to one another (and more). Current research on this project focuses on analyzing data collected from activists engaging in protest around climate change, systemic racism, and the American Resistance (x2).
Through this analysis, we can answer broad questions about protest and activism, as well as about political engagement, organizational embeddedness, network connections among protest participants, and how protest around contentious issues connect social movements and change over time.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
–American Resistance (Columbia University Press, 2019).
-Fisher, Dana. R, Magnolia Mead, W. Chris Jayko, and Arman Azedi. 2025. “What’s Radical? How Do Climate Activists and the General Public Perceive Social Movement Tactics?” Environmental Research Letters.
-Fisher, Dana R., Oscar Berglund, and Colin J. Davis. 2023. “How Effective are Climate Protests at Swaying Policy—and what could make a difference.” Nature. Volume 623, 30 November. Pp 910-913.
-Jasny, Lorien and Dana R. Fisher. 2023. “How Networks of Social Movement Issues Motivate Climate Resistance.” Social Networks.
– Fisher, Dana R. and Stella Rouse. 2022. “Intersectionality within the racial justice movement in the summer of 2020.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
-Fisher, Dana R. and Sohana Nasrin. 2021. “Shifting Coalitions within the Youth Climate Movement in the US.” Politics & Governance. Volume 9, Issue 2.
– Fisher, Dana R., Kenneth T.Andrews, Neal Caren, Erica Chenoweth, Michael T. Heaney, Tommy Leung, Nathan Perkins, and Jeremy Pressman. 2019. “The Science of Contemporary Street Protest: New Efforts in the United States.” Science Advances .
– Fisher, Dana R. and Lorien Jasny. 2019. “Understanding Persistence in the Resistance.” Sociological Forum .
– Fisher, Dana R. 2019. “The broader importance of #FridaysForFuture.” Nature Climate Change.
– Fisher, Dana R., Lorien Jasny, and Dawn M. Dow. 2018. “Why Are We Here? Patterns of Intersectional Motivations Across the Resistance.” Mobilization.
– Fisher, Dana R., Dawn M. Dow, and Rashawn Ray. 2017. “Intersectionality Takes it to the Streets: Mobilizing Across Diverse Interests for the Women’s March.” Science Advances. .
-Presentation of the preliminary results of the study of the 2014 People’s Climate March.
-Documentary Short about studying the 2014 People’s Climate March by FiveThirtyEight, “The Collectors: Political Action.”
Research Tools
Data file, Codebook, and survey instrument for Intersectionality within the Racial Justice Movement in the Summer of 2020, Fisher and Rouse (2022)
Survey Instrument from Women’s March 2017
Survey Instrument from Families Belong Together Event 2018
Dataset from Women’s March 2017 (analysis published in Science Advances)
Dana R Fisher 