Under the leadership of Professor and Rapoport Advisory Board member Jason Cons, our Spring 2023 Colloquium, “Cultures of Environmental Justice,” engaged discussions of detection, action, and repair in environmental politics and struggles. Speakers explored key issues in environmental justice including housing rights, health and food security/sovereignty, environmental racism, conservation, indigenous planning, and more.
This roundtable featured Dr. Raj Patel and Dr. Erin Lentz of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Dr. Alex Racelis of UTRGV, Carolina Mueller of the National Young Farmers Coalition, and Doris Brown and Ben Hirsch of West Street Recovery (Houston). Dr. Jason Cons, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UT Austin, moderated.
Indigenous scholar and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Dr. Heather Dorries discussed the conflicting and contradictory nature of park management in Toronto, focusing on the ways park management has become part of the City of Toronto’s Reconciliation Action Plan and the ways the City has violently cleared parks of homeless encampments.
This event featured Dr. Shafqat Hussain, George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian Studies at Trinity College, who discussed livestock insurance, justice, and policymaking in snow leopard conservation in Northern Pakistan.
This event featured Dr. Julia Dehm, Senior Lecturer at the La Trobe Law School in Melbourne, Australia and 2022-2023 Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and former postdoctoral fellow at the Rapoport Center who discussed reparations and historical responsibility in the international climate regime.
This roundtable discussion, the first event in our Spring 2023 Cultures of Environmental Justice colloquium and co-sponsored by Planet Texas 2050, featured local activists and organizations discussing the ongoing justice implications of Winter Storm Uri.
