Regional symposium to address environment, climate, race and justice

A March 25-26 symposium titled “Next Steps: Environmental Justice, Climate Change, and Racial Justice” will bring together a broad spectrum of people from universities in Indiana. The research symposium, addressing national and global grand challenges, is organized by Purdue’s Center for the Environment and Laura Zanotti, professor of anthropology and formerly the center’s associate director.

Reflecting the interlocking nature of the issues, those addressing environmental concerns come from numerous disciplines — an approach ingrained in the center’s mission. At Purdue and other universities, those involved include artists, anthropologists, toxicologists and policy specialists. Their challenges can include issues such as access to natural resources, the right to live in a clean environment free from toxins, water and land rights as well as historical injustices.

The Next Steps symposium will have participants from Purdue, the University of Notre Dame, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana State University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

“One of the goals of this symposium is to reignite and sustain environmental justice conversations at Purdue and in the region,” says Zanotti, who is currently focusing on collaborative community-driven projects around the globe on media sovereignty, environmental justice, and community resilience and healing. “We hope that faculty, students, and staff will participate to join us in thinking about how to address environmental injustice, understand the effects, and explore ways of implementing reparations now and into the future.”

As a cornerstone goal and focus of the center, Building Sustainable Communities provided the impetus for the symposium. It is one of four current signature research areas of the Center for the Environment, which is part of Purdue’s Discovery Park.

Registration for the symposium is required.  It is free and available through Purdue Ticket Office through the start of the conference.

This Purdue event is being co-organized and supported by Purdue’s Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center,  Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership, Climate Change Research Center, Honors College, School of Interdisciplinary Studies within the College of Liberal Arts, Native American Educational and Cultural Center, and Patti & Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance. The Honors College Visiting Scholar Program and the Black Cultural Center provided support and collaboration to invite distinguished guests. This symposium received support through the enabling inclusion grants program of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence.

Features of the symposium

The symposium will open at noon March 25 and conclude at 5 p.m. March 26. The program will feature four panel sessions on the following themes:

• Dimensions of Environmental Justice and the Midwest.
• Pollutants, Toxins, Health and Justice.
• Gender, Inclusion, and Justice.
• Conflict, Disaster, and Climate Change.

Faculty, students and staff are encouraged to join the facilitated working group sessions on these themes in addition to a New Carbon Economy working group.

The opening session will feature performance artist Latrice Young. The symposium will close with a keynote lecture by Carlton Waterhouse, an international expert on environmental law and policy. His work and scholarship have also centered on reparations and redress for historic injustices. His keynote will address how environmentalism that ignores how various people experience the environment differently perpetuates race, class, gender, and other social biases; influence who has the power to decide how local land is used; and impact who benefits from perpetuation of polluting industries and products.

Student involvement

In addition to being welcome to attend the sessions and the keynote speech, students have additional opportunities to participate.

They can sign up for the interactive planting stories session for students at 3:30 p.m. March 25. This event is offered by the Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center and the Native American Educational and Cultural Center with ACE Food Pantry. Students can discover and share special stories of particular herbs/spices and choose one herb to plant. Registration is limited to 20 individuals who register.

There will also be a student poster session on the first day of the conference.

Also, as part of a class project, undergraduate students in the Honors College have teamed up with graduate students to create teaching materials, which will be made available after the conference. Shannon McMullen, associate professor in the Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance, and School of Interdisciplinary Studies, is currently teaching the course and working with Zanotti to guide students.

About the event, McMullen says, “The Next Steps symposium will further advance the students’ experiences as it brings additional voices from around the state together to share experience and build regional networks.”

About the Center for the Environment

The Center for the Environment promotes proactive, interdisciplinary research, learning, and engagement that addresses important environmental challenges. The center connects the faculty and students across departments and disciplines who work on environmental challenges by actively supporting the development and implementation of innovative projects and teams.