University of Oregon by Environmental Justice
The University of Oregon’s Environment Initiative is a campus-wide coordinated hub focused on higher education’s contribution to a just and livable future.
As we work together toward climate solutions, we recognize that climate change decisions will have profound impacts. This means scrutinizing activities that will exacerbate environmental injustices, and working to build resilience against the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
As a platform that supports and amplifies the applied work of our faculty and students, the Environment Initiative offers a hub for community engagement. The Environmental Justice Weeks events are organized by the Center for the Study of Women in Society, the Just Futures Institute, the Environmental Studies Program, and the Student Sustainability Center with support from the Environment Initiative and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Please join us!
Ghost Forest
April 24 through May 4
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday
LaVerne Krause Gallery, Lawrence Hall
This exhibition by Sarah Grew features Jon Bellona's sound installation Wildfire and was organized by the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS). Additional open hours will be held on April 28, 29, and 30.
Native Ecologies
Tuesday, April 25
4 to 6 p.m.
115 Lawrence Hall
Joining this panel discussion will be panelists Joe Scott, Kari Marie Norgaard, and David G. Lewis. The opening reception for Ghost Forest will take place immediately after in the Lawrence Hall lobby. This event was organized by the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS).
Moving Landscapes and their Entangled Ecologies
Monday, May 1, at 4 p.m.
Ford Lecture Hall
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
Landscapes move us, and we incessantly move them to satisfy our aims and imaginations. As soils, species, and structures are displaced and replaced, the transformation of landscape is marked by ecological rupture. This talk by Andrew Lang will trace natural cultural entanglements that span bird migration, light pollution, invasive carp, smog-tolerant petunias, and tsunami architecture through the lens of aesthetics in its expanded sense. As earth is reconfigured, so too are human and more-than-human perceptions of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The event was organized by landscape architect Liska Chan and nancy silvers.
Storytelling, Public Scholarship, and Capacity Building in Environmental Justice
Monday, May 1
3:30 to 5 p.m.
Via Zoom
Join us for a virtual public conversation with JFI students and post-doctoral scholars sharing how they use storytelling to intentionally produce public scholarship with Black elders, Indigenous Nations, and rural populations in the Pacific Northwest.
Abundance 2023: Student Sustainability Center Conference
Tuesday, May 2, through Sunday, May 7
Conference events will be held May 2 and 3, and off-campus volunteer opportunities and workshops will run from May 4 to May 7. The conference was organized by the Student Sustainability Center (SSC) and the Coalition Against Environmental Racism (CAER)
Alexis Nikole Nelson on Foraging and Abundance
Tuesday, May 2
Noon to 1 p.m.
EMU Redwood Auditorium
Alexis Nikole Nelson, known as @blackforager on Instagram, will give a speech that will be followed by a meet and greet and foraging walks around campus.
Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture
Tuesday, May 2
4:30 to 6 p.m.
177 Lawrence Hall
Scholar Michelle Murphy will give the 2023 Acker-Morgen Memorial Lecture as a closing event to the Ghost Forest exhibition. Murphy is a Professor in the History Department and Women and Gender Studies Institute at the Unviersity of Toronto, as well as a technoscience studies scholar and historian. The event is organized by the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS).
2023 Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples lecture
Tuesday, May 2, at 7 p.m.
Many Nations Longhouse
The 2023 Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples lecture will feature Jen Rose Smith, assistant professor of Geography and American Indian Studies at the Unviersity of Wisconsin-Madison. The event was organized by Mark Carey and Kathy Lynn.
Awakening our Ancestral Ecological Wisdom and Abundance
Wednesday, May 3
2 to 3 p.m.
LCL room, EMU
This workshop by the Healers Project was organized by the Just Futures Institute. It is a part of the Student Sustainability Center conference.
Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change: A Workshop
Thursday, May 4, and Friday, May 5
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Register Now
Join us to explore the potential for synthesizing the human sciences (e.g., social, behavioral, psychological, political, organizational) to develop critical societal capacities for and responses to climate change. The 2-day, virtual public workshop will consider how to integrate, align, and converge the broad mix of social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences to produce new insights and inform efforts for enhanced human responses to environmental change. Earth System Science increasingly incorporates human systems in its analysis of climate change, but social, behavioral, and social sciences have yet to align internally in prioritizing and addressing the range of challenges faced by individuals and communities in responding to the various stresses and opportunities posed by climate change.