Examining the Connection Between Climate Change and Environmental Justice</h1> <article> <h1>Examining the Connection Between Climate Change and Environmental Justice</h1> <p>swargo — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 19:27:16 +0000</p> <span>Examining the Connection Between Climate Change and Environmental Justice</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-04-28T15:27:16-04:00" title="Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 15:27">Wed, 04/28/2021 - 15:27</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> </p> <p><strong>Your book explores a range of topics including climate change, reparations, dissent, fiction, dance, and food justice. What connects these themes?</strong></p> <p>When I started to think about and teach about climate change, I took an environmental justice approach to that topic. As I was teaching about these things and thinking about them since I arrived at �鶹��Ƶ, I became interested in the ways frontline communities practice dissent—how they use direct action, nonviolent civil disobedience, and other ways to protest environmental injustice. I was also interested in how these communities create different worlds. Inhabiting different worlds can take many forms, including kitchens at a blockade, or the way second lines and round dances transform public space. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Why is it essential for environmental studies activists and academics to learn about histories of enslavement?</strong></p> <p>This is something I’ve really been thinking about since I began collaborating with the community of Africatown, Alabama, in 2014. Africatown is the site where the last ship of enslaved people landed in the US, in 1860. The survivors of the Middle Passage founded Africatown after the Civil War. It’s a historic Black town and also an environmental justice community. Environmental justice (EJ) scholars for a long time have said that there is a direct link between enslavement, plantations, and environmental racism. You can see this all through the Gulf Coast and the South. Cancer Alley in Louisiana is an area alongside the Mississippi River where plantations have been converted into petrochemical factories, which pollute historic Black communities that are interspersed among these former plantation sites.That was something I learned about from walking around Africatown and seeing what this landscape looked like, and that’s where I started thinking about EJ in the context of reparations, which is that this history of environmental racism, and the ways that landscapes are structured by enslavement, goes back way before the first Earth Day. It needs to be part of our whole national conversation about race and racism, and anti-Black violence in America. That’s why I start out the book talking about the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is a memorial to victims of lynching, because these forms of anti-Black racism are connected through their roots in enslavement.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>What can be learned about climate disruption by understanding the history of settler colonialism?</strong></p> <p>My thinking around this has been deeply influenced by the work of Potowatomi scholar Kyle Powys Whyte. He says that this idea of climate change being an apocalypse is really a settler colonial point of view—because Indigenous people in North America have already suffered multiple apocalypses—colonization, germ warfare, war, genocide, relocation. A central issue for me was to think about climate change in a much longer historical timeline, not just since when we knew climate change was happening, in maybe the 1980s or so, but trying to think about climate change as just the most recent in a series of effects of settler colonialism. That is, climate change isn’t just caused by technologies or the use of fossil fuels, it’s caused by an entire system, an entire culture, by imperialism and capitalism, by the ways that settler colonialism and enslavement are intertwined in creating the world we live in today. One of those impacts is the effect of climate change, but the roots causes are structural and based in white supremacy.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Mourning is a central theme in your book. Why is it important to think about mourning in the context of climate change?</strong></p> <p>I was really glad to have the chance to think about mourning in this book, because it’s something that has stayed with me since Hurricane Katrina. Climate change activism is often focused on solutions, and environmental studies in general is thought of as a problem-solving discipline, and so people often think of climate change in terms of technology or policy. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but the thing that interests me is that mourning is not about solving a problem, it’s about refusing to forget. It’s about remembering and honoring the dead, and it’s a kind of resistance. It reminds me of the way people talk about victims of police violence now, they use the phrase “say her name.” Remembering the names of the dead is resistance. Public mourning for the dead, demanding that the dead be recognized is a form of resistance. This is also part of the work of the Indigenous movement Idle No More, that demands investigation into missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Your book focuses on the work of frontline communities. What opportunities have you had to work with communities, and how does this work inform your thinking?</strong></p> <p>I have been really blessed to be able to work with different communities since I arrived at�鶹��Ƶ. This was always a priority for me, to find ways to engage with EJ communities. As someone who teaches EJ, I believe it is importantfor me to be engaged on the ground and not just to talk about it. One of the first community organizations I becameinvolved with was Vel’s Purple Oasis, which is an urban garden and teaching kitchen in downtown Cleveland that focuses on Black plant-based food traditions. I started working with Ms. Vel in 2010 and we’re still working together today—this semester there are two amazing Bonner scholars interning at the Oasis. Ms. Vel and I have also written grants together, we published an article together, we’ve done a conference presentation, and we also do a lot of work together with students. Another is the community of Africatown. I’ve been collaborating with Africatown since 2014. What has been really important to me in the work with Ms. Vel and also with Africatown, is to think about questions of respect and reciprocity, and about the importance of local knowledge—the fact that communities know their histories, and know what needs to change, and have visions for their futures. To me EJ work as an academic is about forming relationships with communities and supporting their work. This influenced my writing in the book about how frontline communities are where these better worlds are created, whether that’s an urban garden in Milwaukee or the Standing Rock prayer camps in 2016. This is where we get visions of how the world would be different, if we had solidarity and focused on honoring our relationships, where we see the real transformational work of social care, hospitality, and repair.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>How do the themes of your book connect to your teaching and work with students at �鶹��Ƶ?</strong> </p> <p>There’s such a reciprocal relationship between my teaching and my research. Whenever I develop a new class, or come back to a class after not teaching it for a year, that’s where I’m thinking through the questions that really interest me, and it’s actually with my students that I can have the best conversations. I started teaching about climate change through the lenses of mourning and hospitality in my classes,and we had the most incredible conversations about grieving the losses of climate change—there are always things that happen in the classroom that I can’t predict. When I was writing this book, which was sometimes a struggle, I imagined writing for my students, because they are my most important interlocutors. I feel like my students have this genuine engagement with ideas that isn’t trapped by disciplines, so I feel free when I’m designing a syllabus to take risks because I know the students will be willing to be there with me. It’s also been students who have collaborated with me every step of the way in the Africatown project. The relationships that students form with community partners creates things I would never have been able to predict—the respect and reciprocity, and the genuine love and hospitality that community members show the students. Getting to witness that really affects the way I teach, because it gives me faith in the possibility of alliances and for academic work to contribute to communities.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>The cover art for the book is a painting by Avehn Zimmer-Chu ’21, who traveled to Africatown as a research assistant with Professor Fiskio.</strong></p> <p> </p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"> <figcaption>Cover art by <strong>by Avehn Zimmer-Chu ’21</strong></figcaption> </figure> <p><strong>Please tell us a bit about yourself—your interests and passions, what you’re studying, and what your favorite activities are outside of class.</strong></p> <p>My name is Avehn or Zimmy, and I use they/them pronouns. I’m a fourth year ENVS and CAST major with a studio art minor, focusing in community care in environmental justice work. I love to draw, paint, and walk all over �鶹��Ƶ, and I feel most fulfilled when I get to be involved in intentional communities like Third World Co-op and Baldwin Cottage. I’m also in OSLAM and work as an SIC staffer where I teach roleplays! </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>How did you and Prof. Fiskio begin working together? Have you collaborated on other projects together before this one?</strong></p> <p>I first met with Professor Fiskio before the winter term of my first year, when I was looking for environmental justice internships. That spring semester, one of my friends suggested that I take her course in the fall on local knowledge and environmental justice. I was super excited by the title and description, and had enjoyed working with Professor Fiskio over my first winter term, so I couldn’t wait to work with her further. The fall semester of my second year was the first time I was introduced to Africatown, Alabama and the work that she and her students were supporting there. I got to visit Africatown, and since then have continued to be involved in various capacities. I have learned so much from Professor Fiskio, not just academically but also the values and practices of working in community with people. I was able to participate in a project that was truly guided by community needs, humility from us as partners from a higher ed institution, and genuine care for our community partners. I was so honored when Professor Fiskio asked me to use my painting for her book cover, and I’m so excited and delighted to see her work! </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Prof. Fiskio selected your painting to be the cover of her new book. Please tell us about your painting, and how it connects to Climate Change, Literature, and Environmental Justice.</strong></p> <p>This painting is based on one I did my second year as part of my work with Africatown through the Local Knowledge and EJ course. I wanted it to be bright and hopeful, but I also wanted to acknowledge how hard environmental justice communities and organizers work. They are growing in poisoned soil, and through that process they revitalize the land itself. It is not work they should have to do, but- like Professor Fiskio’s work- it is based in a genuine love for the community and the people within it. I have so much awe and respect for the community partners that I’ve been lucky enough to do work with and for, and I believe they deserve to be celebrated not only for their efforts but for their beauty as human beings- for their roots and their flowers. Professor Fiskio has taught me a lot about respect, growth, and care, and I wanted that to be reflected as much as possible in this book cover. </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-04-28T12:00:00Z">Wed, 04/28/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>In her recently published book <em>Climate Change, Literature, and Environmental Justice </em>(Cambridge University Press), Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Comparative American Studies <a href="/jay-fiskio">Jay Fiskio</a> places climate change within the long histories of enslavement, settler colonialism, and resistance, and examines the connections between climate disruption and and a system of imperialism and capitalism.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/jay-fiskio" hreflang="und">Jay Fiskio</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jennifer Manna</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Ambitious geothermal project to make �鶹��Ƶ a national leader in clean energy</h1> <p>swargo — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 14:18:57 +0000</p> <span>Ambitious geothermal project to make �鶹��Ƶ a national leader in clean energy</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2021-04-19T10:18:57-04:00" title="Monday, April 19, 2021 - 10:18">Mon, 04/19/2021 - 10:18</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>�鶹��Ƶ College & Conservatory will take an important step toward carbon neutrality this summer as it launches a multi-year, campus-wide conversion to geothermal energy, positioning the institution as a national leader in clean energy.</p> <p>The $140 million, four-year project will begin next month with the installation of new heating and cooling systems in South Campus buildings, and ultimately involve the drilling of about 1100 geothermal wells that will effectively heat and cool campus buildings. </p> <p>When complete, the project will bring �鶹��Ƶ within reach of its ambitious goal to become carbon neutral—using education and behavior change strategies, efficiencies, and clean energy sources, to bring the institution’s net release of carbon dioxide to zero—by 2025.</p> <p>It will also replace failing, century-old infrastructure with a system that will bring air conditioning to more buildings, improve the temperature control across campus, bolster reliability, and save more than $1 million a year in energy costs.</p> <p>“We had to act, so we did this the �鶹��Ƶ way,” wrote President Carmen Ambar in a message to students, faculty, staff, and alumni. “We started with a rigorous, exhaustive examination of every possible option. Then, armed with that data, our trustees made a bold decision that will not just fix the problem—it will show other large institutions across the country that it is possible to improve living and working conditions for students, faculty, and staff, while addressing a global challenge that touches all of us.”</p> <p>“Obies care deeply about our collective impact on the environment,” said Meghan Riesterer, assistant vice president for campus energy and sustainability. “This is a collaborative solution developed by representatives from across our community, together with experts.”</p> <p>Riesterer said one of the project’s most exciting elements is the educational opportunities it creates. �鶹��Ƶ students have been an integral part of the project planning already. The project will also be a subject for coursework in environmental studies, geology, psychology, and the new business concentration.</p> <p>In 2006 �鶹��Ƶ was one of the first institutions to sign the Carbon Commitment (formerly the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment), pledging to dramatically reduce harmful emissions by 2025, decades ahead of many other signatories. The college has already cut its carbon use in half, through efficiencies in power and heating use, a significant solar-power project, and a transitional conversion from coal-fired heat to natural gas.</p> <p>Even as it made those changes, �鶹��Ƶ continued to work toward a more comprehensive, carbon-free source of thermal energy. At the same time, the deterioration of steam pipes installed a century ago has accelerated, adding urgency to the work.</p> <p>In 2016 the college released a new master plan for sustainable infrastructure, which analyzed a variety of options for both the heating system and its principal source of energy. In March, trustees approved a plan that modernizes �鶹��Ƶ’s “energy district” approach, which uses a single source of heat and cooling for most campus buildings, as well as several nearby buildings that purchase their heating energy from the College.</p> <p>In addition to geothermal heating and cooling and supporting infrastructure, the $140 million estimate also covers significant upgrades to the college’s electrical system and information technology infrastructure, which will cost less if combined with the geothermal project. Funding sources are expected to include long-term debt financing, federal grants, tax credits, and other possible outside sources, subject to trustee approval.</p> <p>The thermal conversion begins with a transition from an outdated steam system to a “low-temperature,” closed-loop system that moves 120- to 140-degree water from the energy source and across campus, with much lower loss in temperature and water, and the flexibility to bring heat and cooling where it is most needed at any given moment. </p> <p>That system will require retrofitting heating systems within each building, as well as replacing more than 9 miles of underground piping across campus. Campus facilities leaders have said they will use this opportunity to upgrade other technologies within each building, including digital infrastructure and fire protection systems.</p> <p>As that infrastructure work is underway, the project will convert the boiler plant to tap geothermal energy, using current equipment as a natural-gas backup, and culminate with the drilling and installation of the geothermal wells north of the college’s athletics practice fields. Drawing water through a closed loop from 600 feet underground, where the temperature is a constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit, pumps will then deliver it to state-of-the-art heat exchangers, which are boosted by electricity from �鶹��Ƶ Municipal Power and Light and are nearly 90 percent carbon-free. </p> <p>Work begins this summer with the conversion of buildings on South Campus, while they are not in use. The work will then proceed roughly clockwise, to West and Central Campus, and on to completion.</p> <p>The transition also will reduce �鶹��Ƶ’s water use by more than 5 million gallons per year, reduce sewer discharge by more than 4 million gallons per year, and improve campus energy efficiency by over 30%. </p> <p>In addition, there is potential to extend this carbon-neutral system to serve the broader community. Throughout the planning process, college leaders have worked closely with city leaders. This additional geothermal heating source will better position the City of �鶹��Ƶ to meet its City Climate Action Plan goals. </p> <p>This project is being done in partnership with Ever-Green Energy, a Minnesota-based company focused on advancing and operating energy systems.</p> <p>For more information about the Sustainable Infrastructure Program including construction updates, visit <a href="https://carbonneutral.oberlin.edu/">CarbonNeutral.oberlin.edu</a>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Major campus refit will save money, improve comfort with innovative technology</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2021-04-19T12:00:00Z">Mon, 04/19/2021 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2369">Environment & Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/carmen-twillie-ambar" hreflang="und">Carmen Twillie Ambar</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">William Bradford</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>�鶹��Ƶ College Joins Leaders From Across the United States Affirming a Commitment to Global Climate Action</h1> <p>swargo — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:04:24 +0000</p> <span>�鶹��Ƶ College Joins Leaders From Across the United States Affirming a Commitment to Global Climate Action</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-12-11T10:04:24-05:00" title="Friday, December 11, 2020 - 10:04">Fri, 12/11/2020 - 10:04</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>OBERLIN, OHIO – December 12, 2020, marks the five-year anniversary of the world coming together to sign on to the Paris Agreement for global climate action. To commemorate this moment, �鶹��Ƶ College has joined more than one thousand leaders from local governments, businesses, tribal communities, and other institutions across the country as a signatory of the “<a href="http://americaisallin.com">America Is All In</a>” <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> joint statement. </p> <p>This joint statement will be delivered to the incoming Biden-Harris administration, as well as to United Nations officials and global heads of state at the Climate Ambition Summit hosted by the United Kingdom, also on December 12. </p> <p>�鶹��Ƶ College has long been committed to taking action on climate change and social justice. As the college nears 2025—the target year to achieve carbon neutrality—there is much progress to celebrate and lots of work ahead. �鶹��Ƶ College has achieved approximately 100 percent green electricity and offers sustainability-related courses in 22 departments across the curriculum. For these initiatives and more, �鶹��Ƶ College was recently featured as a top-five baccalaureate institution in the Sustainable Campus Index published by AASHE.</p> <p>‘‘�鶹��Ƶ College is moving boldly ahead to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. We are partnering with experts in the carbon-neutral field as well as those in our local community to achieve this goal,’’ said Kevin Brown, chief of facilities at �鶹��Ƶ College. ‘‘The next monumental step is our Sustainable Infrastructure Program, which includes replacing our aged district steam system with a new district low-temperature hot water system with a carbon-neutral energy source providing the heat.’’</p> <p>The ‘‘America Is All In’’ declaration is organized by We Are Still In, a coalition in support of climate action and a pledge to uphold the United States' commitments to reduce emissions under the Paris Agreement. With more than 3,900 organizations and institutions across all sectors of the United States, these leaders represent over half of the national population, nearly two-thirds of the economy, and more than half of the country’s emissions.</p> <p>While the United States officially exited the Paris Agreement on November 4, 2020, the incoming Biden-Harris administration has committed to reentering the unprecedented global agreement. �鶹��Ƶ College was also a signatory to the 2017 ‘‘<a href="http://www.wearestillin.com">We Are Still In</a>’’ <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>climate declaration that was issued in response to the announcement that the United State intended to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.</p> <p>‘‘December 12 is more than an anniversary of an agreement, it represents a critical turning point for the future of U.S. and global climate action,’’ said Elan Strait, director of US climate campaigns at World Wildlife Fund (WWF). ‘‘Nationally, we have stumbled in our leadership on climate action. But We Are Still In shows that there was a commitment to change in the United States that never faltered. Today‘s statement from �鶹��Ƶ College and hundreds like them across the country sends a clear message that we need a unified national response to the climate crisis.’’</p> <p>To date, the new statement has been signed by more than 290 cities and counties across the United States, 945 faith groups, more than 400 colleges and universities, and 10 states.</p> <hr> <p><strong>About �鶹��Ƶ</strong></p> <p>Ranked among the nation’s top liberal arts schools, �鶹��Ƶ of Music are known for exemplary academic and musical pedagogy and commitment to social justice, sustainability, and creative entrepreneurship. The college, founded in 1833, holds a distinguished place among American colleges and universities as the first to grant bachelor's degrees to women in a coeducational environment and was a leader in the education of African Americans. The Conservatory of Music, a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, was founded in 1865, making it the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. �鶹��Ƶ Conservatory alumni enjoy illustrious careers in all aspects of the music world, achieving prominence as performers, conductors, composers, music educators, scholars, and arts administrators.</p> <ul> <li>View the statement and signatories at <a href="http://americaisallin.com">AmericaIsAllIn.com</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span></li> <li>Learn more at <a href="http://www.wearestillin.com">WeAreStillIn.com</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span></li> </ul> <p>Media contact: <a href="mailto:Scott.Wargo@oberlin.edu">Scott Wargo, director of media relations</a></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-12-11T12:00:00Z">Fri, 12/11/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2369">Environment & Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3319">Community Engagement</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Rob Lamppa</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Rumi Shammin Hosts Writeshop for Forthcoming Book on Climate Change and and Resilience in South Asia</h1> <p>swargo — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 17:09:03 +0000</p> <span>Rumi Shammin Hosts Writeshop for Forthcoming Book on Climate Change and and Resilience in South Asia</span> <span><span>swargo</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-10-27T13:09:03-04:00" title="Tuesday, October 27, 2020 - 13:09">Tue, 10/27/2020 - 13:09</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Rumi Shammin hosted an international writeshop via Zoom on October 8-11 with co-editors of his upcoming book <em>Climate Change and Community Resilience: Insights from South Asia</em>. Professor Shammin has been collaborating with Professor Enamul Haque of East West University (Bangladesh), Professor Pranab Mukhopadhyay of Goa University (India) and Dr. Mani Nepal of the South Asian Network of Development and Environmental Economics (Nepal) on this book project. The editors jointly organized the writeshop that brought together the contributing authors to present and discuss the chapters.</p> <p>South Asia, where a quarter of the global population resides in 3.5 percent of world’s land area, is the most impacted region of the world to climate change—both in terms of fatalities and economic losses that have occurred in recent decades. The edited volume (to be published in 2021) documents community-level initiatives from seven countries in South Asia in 29 chapters contributed by more than 50 scholars. Readers of the book will get a glimpse of grassroots efforts at sustainable agriculture and indigenous knowledge, technology adoption, alternative livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, urban sustainability, and equity and justice. The book specifically addresses resilience building and attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals linked to community initiatives. The narrative style of writing is intended to make the volume accessible to a wider interdisciplinary audience.</p> <p>The writeshop offered a forum for transparent, efficient, and comprehensive review of each chapter by designated discussants and other authors. Participants engaged in real-time comments, responses, and problem-solving. The event also fostered a shared ownership of the entire volume by the participating authors and offered an opportunity for them to come together as a community of researchers from diverse backgrounds working toward common goals. �鶹��Ƶ alumni and environmental studies majors Maya Sosland ’19 and Amy Wang ’20 participated and presented as Professor Shammin’s coauthors at the writeshop. The event was jointly sponsored by South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, East West University (Bangladesh), Goa University (India), and �鶹��Ƶ College.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-10-27T12:00:00Z">Tue, 10/27/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/md-rumi-shammin" hreflang="und">Md Rumi Shammin</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Rumi Shammin</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>�鶹��Ƶ Students Host Earth Day Symposium Online</h1> <p>anagy — Tue, 12 May 2020 17:24:51 +0000</p> <span>�鶹��Ƶ Students Host Earth Day Symposium Online</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-05-12T13:24:51-04:00" title="Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - 13:24">Tue, 05/12/2020 - 13:24</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, five �鶹��Ƶ students hosted a vibrant, 10-day digital symposium with panel discussions on climate change and a keynote speech by environmental scholar Carolyn Finney about race and the environment.</p> <p>Planning for the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G4_LX3vv4ViVuh_D8zLXsPGqwpGHT5pgElt7L4S9OTQ/edit">Earth Day 50</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span> celebration began in the fall, but when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the campus to move to remote learning, organizers decided it was important to proceed with the scheduled programming by shifting events to Zoom.</p> <p>Fourth-years Madeleine Gefke, Olivia Vasquez, and Ora Hammel, along with third-year Wenling Li and second-year Phoebe von Conta planned and organized the commemoration. They received input from <a href="/john-petersen">John Petersen</a>, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology, who connected them with John Elder ’53, a Kendal at �鶹��Ƶ resident and cochair of the residents’ environmental concerns committee.</p> <p>From December to March, the students attended green group monthly potlucks facilitated by Elder in the basement of Peace Community Church, where they planned the symposium, built connections with green group representatives, and collaborated with various academic departments, offices, and student groups, EnviroAlums, and the Office of the President. Elder, in particular, was instrumental in leading meetings, connecting the students to others, and bringing people together.</p> <p>In March, the COVID-19 pandemic forced �鶹��Ƶ to suspend in-person classes, and it became uncertain if the symposium could still happen. However, with input from Petersen and with the community’s encouragement, the student committee shifted the majority of the panels, keynote speeches, and events to Zoom. Pandemic or not, climate change was still a pertinent issue that had to be addressed. </p> <p>“This was a lightbulb moment which ultimately dictated the purpose, planning, and outcome of the event,” Vasquez says. “From then on, it was established that if we were going to go full-steam and pursue this, it was going to be a collaborative college and city effort.”</p> <p>Of course, moving an entire symposium online was not without challenges. Gefke and others spent hours testing Zoom links and settings. </p> <p>“After the abrupt ending of life on campus, I felt a deep hole from the lack of community, of motivation, of something to look forward to,” Gefke says. “[However], I felt that Earth Day 50 was even more imperative now. This event series was a goal we could still work toward, a celebration we could still look forward to, and a way to bring the �鶹��Ƶ community and college together again, all of which I desperately wanted and needed in this separation.”</p> <p>The 10-day celebration included the �鶹��Ƶ Virtual Sustainability Fair with presentations from local organizations and student groups about sustainability initiatives, multiple panels led by writer Mary Anaïse Heglar ’06, a Professor Panel on Climate Change from a variety of departments, and a keynote speech by Finney about race and the environment.</p> <p>The organizers credit the collective effort, passion, and commitment to the cause, from participants’ willingness to adjust their panels and speeches to Zoom to the attendees’ continued interest in the symposium during a pandemic.</p> <p>“It goes without saying that Mary Anaïse Heglar made our Earth Day series what it was,” von Conta said. “Not only did she agree to hold four separate discussions, but she invited her friends and colleagues along too, expanding the network.”</p> <p>Li says the success of Earth Day 50 is a testament to the �鶹��Ƶ community’s “resilience and persistent commitment to the sustainability of �鶹��Ƶ as a college and as a community.”</p> <p>“[The] Earth Day 50 events really highlighted how climate change is not just relevant to environmental studies majors,” Li says. “Rather, it is also a moral, economic, social, cultural issue at this time.”</p> <p>The current pandemic brings a myriad of stresses, and the students are grateful that climate change was not being ignored. </p> <p>“While a pandemic and climate change are different, there is a lot of social injustice and policy response parallels, further demonstrating the need to begin listening to the scientific experts and creating better policy,” Hammel said. </p> <p>“There's a lot on the mind for everyone right now,” von Conta added. “The events would be nothing without the engagement and attendance of students and community members, and faculty and friends, who showed up, and gave themselves to the effort.” </p> <p>Gefke sees Earth Day 50 as a culmination of her experiences at �鶹��Ƶ.</p> <p>“I was so incredibly impressed with the commitment of everyone involved in finding ways to connect and support each other even from afar,” Gefke added. “The relationships and collaborations I have had at �鶹��Ƶ have been the most meaningful part of my �鶹��Ƶ experience, and this Earth Day experience has only emphasized the fact that these relationships and collaborations will continue despite time and space differences.”</p> <p><a class="view-more" href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gGTQiXlStn4UnXKiyVJE7sJUaIB1r-Nj">View an archive of the event recordings</a>.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-05-12T12:00:00Z">Tue, 05/12/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Jaimie Yue '22</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2369">Environment & Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2390">Events</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2410">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2366">Guest Artists & Speakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25351">Environmental Studies and Sciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/john-petersen" hreflang="und">John Petersen ’88</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">�鶹��Ƶ students work on George Jones Memorial Farm.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yevhen Gulenko</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-27061" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>Explore the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/oberlin/sets/72157713974723331/">Green Side of �鶹��Ƶ on Flickr</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>.</p> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>�鶹��Ƶ’s George Jones Memorial Farm is a Natural Campus Resource</h1> <p>hhempste — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 15:18:01 +0000</p> <span>�鶹��Ƶ’s George Jones Memorial Farm is a Natural Campus Resource</span> <span><span>hhempste</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-10-18T11:18:01-04:00" title="Friday, October 18, 2019 - 11:18">Fri, 10/18/2019 - 11:18</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>On a bright fall day, students plant sunflowers where there once was an overgrown path on the 70-acre <a href="/george-jones-farm">George Jones Memorial Farm and Nature Preserve</a>.</p> <p>Visiting Instructor in Environmental Studies Brad Melzer explains that the purpose is beneficial in two ways: Not only will the sunflowers beautify a pathway leading to a pond, the seeds of the plant will provide food for birds in the winter.</p> <p>The students doing the planting are part of Melzer’s <a href="https://catalog.oberlin.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=43&ent_oid=4144">Practicum in Agroecology</a> class, which studies the ecology and economics of small-scale agricultural enterprises, using the George Jones Farm as their laboratory. Named in memory of revered Professor of Botany George Jones, the farm focuses on restoration agriculture and is home to varied ecosystems, including wetlands, prairie, forest, and vernal pools.</p> <p>The expansive farmland is situated just one mile east of campus, and it is owned by �鶹��Ƶ College. The land is leased to the the New Agrarian Center, the nonprofit that operates both the George Jones Memorial Farm and <a href="https://cityfresh.org/">City Fresh</a>, a longstanding community supported agriculture (CSA) program that began in 2005.</p> <p>“The farm isn’t just a farm,” says Melzer. “It’s also a food hub, and it works with many farmers in the area.” He explains that produce from local farms is aggregated at the farm. City Fresh then makes that food available by operating what they call “fresh stops,” or stands that distribute the produce at various locations in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties, including some in food deserts.</p> <p>While the farm has continued its operation, Melzer explains that it has not been as active as it once was, partially due to the lack of a farm director. But with this position now filled, the farm is taking off. “The farm is experiencing a renaissance,” says Melzer. “We want the community to know that it’s open for collaboration.”</p> <p>Even during its slower periods, the farm continued to work regularly with classes in biology, geology, and environmental studies, and with the Bonner Center for service initiatives. This year, the farm is looking to reinvigorate those existing relationships as well as forge new collaborations.</p> <p>Nick Swetye, director of the New Agrarian Center, explains that the farm offers student internships, work study and volunteer opportunities, and space for student organizations to hold events. It also works closely with Campus Dining Services to provide produce for the dining halls.</p> <p>For students, experiences on the farm can be meaningful in shaping their careers. Hannah Rodgers ’18 credits her experience in Melzer’s Practicum in Agroecology course, along with a private reading on sustainable agriculture, with helping her understand how agricultural reform can address problems such as poverty, health, and climate change.</p> <p>“My experiences in agriculture motivated me to spend time in a place where agriculture is a part of daily life, so I applied for and accepted a Fulbright English Teaching Fellowship in Nepal,” says Rodgers.</p> <p>“Right now, I live in a rural community where I spend a lot of time helping to grow the food that my homestay family eats. I’m also applying to graduate schools in soil science with a focus on agricultural management practices that support soil life and reduce the need for artificial inputs, such as fertilizers.”</p> <p>Swetye says that students can get involved at the farm in a variety of ways. “We’re looking for any and all kinds of volunteer service,” says Swetye. “Students can do everything that’s required on a farm—planting seeds, managing pests with organic farming methods, clearing trails, and managing invasive species.” He says that students should feel welcome to <a href="https://cityfresh.org/?page_id=2886">contact him</a> to volunteer, and that he’s glad to work around busy schedules.<br> <br> Melzer stresses that involving the campus will be integral to the farm’s success, and that it is open to volunteers and partnerships of any kind. “No farm is an island,” says Melzer. “It thrives on community.” </p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-10-18T12:00:00Z">Fri, 10/18/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Hillary Hempstead</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2410">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2385">Community</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2369">Environment & Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25351">Environmental Studies and Sciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students in Brad Melzer’s Practicum in Agroecology class plant sunflowers at the George Jones Memorial Farm.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-title field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">George Jones Memorial Farm</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yevhen Gulenko</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> <div class="photo-gallery__slides"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Visiting Instructor in Environmental Studies Brad Melzer talks with students in his Practicum in Agroecology class at the George Jones Memorial Farm. </span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Students planting sunflowers on a pathway near a pond on the George Jones Memorial Farm. </span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">A building that is used as classroom space on the farm. </span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Students plant sunflowers near a pond. </span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">An aerial view of the farm. </span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Yevhen Gulenko</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__navbar"> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Combating Climate Change and Exploring Resilience with the ‘People of the Whales’</h1> <p>anagy — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 18:44:43 +0000</p> <span>Combating Climate Change and Exploring Resilience with the ‘People of the Whales’</span> <span><span>anagy</span></span> <span><time datetime="2017-04-28T14:44:43-04:00" title="Friday, April 28, 2017 - 14:44">Fri, 04/28/2017 - 14:44</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Chie Sakakibara was a young graduate student and relatively new to the United States when she ventured to a remote Alaska town in the harsh Arctic climate to study cultural resilience of the indigenous population.</p> <p>“I crossed the Arctic Circle without knowing anyone or having a place to stay because I was genuinely interested in human-animal relationships and the changing environment,” says Sakakibara, an assistant professor and one of the newest faculty members in the environmental studies program.</p> <p>At 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the town of Utqiagvik, <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/goodbye-barrow-alaska-hello-utqiagvik-180961273/">(formerly named Barrow)</a> is considered ground zero for climate change because the Arctic experiences climate change at least twice as fast as the average rise on the rest of the planet.</p> <p>Sakakibara came to the U.S. from Japan in 1998 for undergraduate work in Native American studies at the University of Oklahoma. She also has graduate degrees in cultural geography and art history. “[After graduating from college,] I ended up staying in the United States and switching academic fields here and there. Every time I switched my field, however, my research topic had to do with indigenous studies,” she says. Today, she teaches and researches in the field of environmental humanities.</p> <p>She was drawn to the indigenous Iñupiaq culture in Alaska’s North Slope Borough because of their special relationship to the bowhead whales. The Iñupiat call themselves “the People of the Whales.”</p> <p>“As a woman who grew up in Japan, the whale has been very special to me. The Iñupiat are very proud of their relationship with the bowhead whale, and that manifests in a variety of forms: hunting the whale, consuming the whale, sharing the whale with community members, and showing respect and appreciation of the animal that gives itself to the people. They don’t waste anything that comes out of the whale’s body. I find this form of reciprocity fascinating and beautiful. I participated in various cultural activities that are central to Iñupiaq lives. The more I spent time with them, the more I was warmly embraced. I wanted to know more about the people and work closely with them as an adopted community member.”</p> <p>That was about 14 years ago. Sakakibara has forged lasting relationships with the Utqiagvik community, and they’ve witnessed her growth as an individual as much as a professional who is now mentoring a younger generation.</p> <p>In November 2016, as the region was progressing into polar night, Sakakibara took three �鶹��Ƶ students on a weeklong trip to Utqiagvik. Kiley Peterson, Liv Roak, and Paulus Van Horne had previously taken Sakakibara’s seminar, “Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change” and had interacted with Iñupiaq environmentalists Caroline Cannon and Rosemary Ahtuangaruak. During the visit, they met with villagers, participated in cultural activities, and ate the local delicacy called <em>muktuk</em>—the preserved skin and blubber of the bowhead whale.</p> <p>Sakakibara says the concept of reciprocity has been a core of Iñupiat well-being for thousands of years. In the center, there has always been the existence of the bowhead whale. The whale meat and muktuk is a mainstay of their diet and provides the necessary calories and nutrients to survive the harsh climate; the sharing of the whale in the community and beyond has cultivated the cultural and social integrity of the People of the Whales. Cultural expression is tied to a cold Arctic climate that nurtures wildlife because traditional music is based on drums, which have been made from the liver and stomach lining of the bowhead whales and occasionally from caribou.</p> <p>But warming temperatures and disappearing sea ice continuously threaten the animals’ and people’s connectivity, well-being and survival.</p> <p>Snow and ice cool the earth’s surface by reflecting the majority of the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere. However, warming air temperatures melt snow and ice and expose darker regions (open water). As a result, the dark Arctic Ocean without any sea ice--which works as the reflector of the energy—absorbs more heat. This is how the Arctic is contributing to the warming of the planet as a whole. This phenomenon is known as the ice-albedo feedback, and is also interrelated with the polar amplification.</p> <p>“The Arctic Ocean is supposed to be frozen nine to 10 months out of the year, but now the Arctic is locked onto a course of shrinking sea ice. The Arctic sea ice extent has broken record lows for winter in 2016 since the satellite records began in 1979,” Sakakibara says.</p> <p>“What this means is that the sea ice is getting thinner and more fragile. Hunters use the sea ice as a foundation to tow, haul in and butcher the bowhead whale that they harvest in the ocean. The whale weighs up to one ton per foot. These are giant creatures that grow up to 60 feet in adulthood. If you hunt a bowhead whale, the ice has to sustain 60 tons of the dead animal, as well as the people from the community who are coming down to celebrate the arrival of the animal. So it’s getting very dangerous for the people to be on the sea ice to be with this sacred creature. The safety of the people and efficiency of butchering and sharing the animal is directly influenced by the warming of the sea and the atmosphere.”</p> <p>Sakakibara’s collaborative research with the community explores cultural resilience of the People of the Whales at this time of environmental uncertainty and social anxiety. “The situation is constantly getting more challenging for the people. But, our study is not about the vulnerability of the society. Rather, we frame our exploration as a study of hope by exploring the people’s resilience and adaptation skills,” she says.</p> <p>Upon completion of their fieldwork last fall, Sakakibara’s students are now formulating capstone research projects based on their experience.</p> <p>Paulus Van Horne, a fifth-year double-degree student majoring in environmental studies and Technology in Music and the Related Arts (TIMARA), notes that the temperature over the Thanksgiving holiday was an unseasonably warm 9 degrees Fahrenheit. “The sea ice just didn’t form when it was supposed to. If you read through the online news sites, you’ll see increasing articles worrying about the lack of sea ice.”</p> <p>Van Horne found inspiration in tribal radio station KBRW and other media in their role in whale hunting and connecting Iñupiaq villages across the vast expanse of the North Slope Borough. “What I found is that Facebook has largely supplanted KBRW's community role. It is two-way conversation after all, and you can send pictures. It totally beats radio in that respect. My research will focus on how the Iñupiaq people have demonstrated cultural resiliency by reappropriating communication technology to transmit cultural material--language programs, Eskimo dance recordings, stories and folklore--regardless of the technology. So I will trace Iñupiaq resilience through changing technology and climate.”</p> <p>Fourth-year environmental studies major Kiley Petersen was awestruck by the welcoming nature of the Iñupiaq villagers. “Something I heard mentioned both in the Anchorage airport and by members of the community in Utqiagvik was the intense pull of the Arctic and Alaska itself—there's just something very comforting but at the same time stark about the landscape that, combined with the strong sense of community, makes it a very compelling place.”</p> <p>Petersen, who is from Minneapolis, is interested in journalism and public policy, and she says the trip confirmed her desire to integrate environmental and indigenous concerns in those fields. “While I was there, I found myself drawn to research about native food and subsistence hunting, collaboration between whale biologists and whaling crews, and the formation of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission to advocate for native whaling rights on an international scale.”</p> <p>Liv Roak, a fourth-year environmental studies major and sociology minor, came away with a particular interest in how song and dance permeate community life in Utqiagvik.</p> <p>“We had the privilege of engaging in various communal activities and cultural practices, such as the community Thanksgiving feast and Eskimo Dance, to gain experience of how the Iñupiat people live and thrive in the Arctic. It became evident during my time there that music is a powerful tool for expression of Iñupiat identity, community, and cultural resilience in the face of the ongoing legacies of settler colonialism, particularly climate change,” says Roak, who is from Philadelphia.</p> <h3>The art of reciprocity</h3> <p>When Sakakibara interviewed at �鶹��Ƶ for her current position two years ago, she casually mentioned her desire to curate an art exhibition based on human-animal relationships. Almost as soon as she arrived, Liliana Milkova, curator of academic programs at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, helped make it happen.</p> <p><a href="https://amam.oberlin.edu/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/upcoming">“Exploring Reciprocity: The Power of Animals in Non-Western Art,”</a> opened in late January. The exhibition is linked to two of her classes, Nature, Culture, Interpretation (ENVS201) and Indigenous Environmentalism (ENVS327) in which students explore how nature is experienced and interpreted in non-Western traditions through an interdisciplinary humanities lens. It includes 18 works of art from the museum’s collection, half coming from Native American traditions, the other half composed of Japanese woodblock prints—<em>ukiyoe</em>—from the 18th and 19th centuries.</p> <p>While this exhibition does not include any maps, as a cultural geographer-art historian, Sakakibara frames it as an attempt of counter-mapping. Counter-mapping signifies the efforts of underrepresented communities to map against dominant power structures and systems. This attempt often results in social and cultural empowerment and enhancement of sovereignty. Highlighting the works by non-Western artists, the exhibition reveals the human-animal relations as a metaphor of such initiatives of “mapping back” the world. Artists have long turned to visual texts to grapple with marginalization, colonialism and imperialism. Furthermore, artworks served as a tool of communication between the West and non-Western spheres of the world.</p> <p>In conjunction with the exhibition, Sakakibara has organized several events and guest lectures by her collaborators. Among those is a <a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/amam_first_thursday_-_animals_in_the_western_and_non-western_imaginations#.WJs_8GNQqiY">panel discussion</a> on animals in Western and non-Western imaginations on March 2 at the museum. The event will include talks on specific animals by faculty members Matt Senior (French), Mary Garvin (biology), Tom Newlin (Russian), Karl Offen (environmental studies), and third-year environmental studies student Sam Tunick, a curatorial assistant for the exhibition and Sakakibara’s collaborator.</p> <p>Artist and art historian Edward Hummingbird of Albuquerque’s Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute will give a lecture entitled “American Indian Artist Perspectives of Culture and Environment” <a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/amam_special_lecture_edward_hummingbird#.WJtBY2NQqiY">March 8</a>. On <a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/aaron_fox_keynote_address_decolonizing_the_ethnomusicological_archive#.WJtBy2NQqiY">March 25</a>, Aaron A. Fox, associate professor of music and director of the Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, will speak on "Ways of Hearing: Decolonizing the Ethnomusicological Archive.” Fox is the keynote speaker for the Meeting of Midwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology organized by Jennifer Fraser, associate professor of ethnomusicology. Fox and Sakakibara have been collaborating on a project to return and recover Iñupiaq recordings previously held by Columbia University’s Center for Ethnomusicology.</p> <p>Sakakibara is grateful for the interest and support from her colleagues and students, and appreciates interdisciplinary collaboration with various departments and programs across campus.</p> <p>“It was always my dream to curate my own art exhibition, work on it with students, and then incorporate it in my teaching and research. The current exhibition also highlights my commitment and affiliation with the Iñupiaq and Japanese communities. Being at �鶹��Ƶ has given me an invaluable opportunity to be thankful to everyone who has helped me grow up as a person as much as a scholar. Being at �鶹��Ƶ also gives me an opportunity to pay it forward by working closely with students. This reciprocity is coming into a beautiful circle, and I’m very appreciative of every moment of my time here.”</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2017-02-21T12:00:00Z">Tue, 02/21/2017 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Amanda Nagy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2363">Academics & Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2369">Environment & Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=3499">Climate Action</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25351">Environmental Studies and Sciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/environmental-studies" hreflang="und">Environmental Studies and Science</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">From left, environmental studies students Paulus Van Horne, Kiley Peterson, and Liv Roak, with Assistant Professor Chie Sakakibara at Point Barrow, Alaska.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Chie Sakakibara</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>