Sustainability- Spring 2019

Many scholars refer to the last sixty years as the Great Acceleration, a period of rapid growth in population, resource consumption, landscape changes, carbon pollution and other forms of that are transforming the human relationship with the natural world. These last sixty years have also been marked by tremendous social, economic and technological changes that have improved the wellbeing for much of the world’s population, though unevenly and inequitably. Responses to the changes and challenges have included individual efforts to live more sustainably; private sector initiatives to “green” business practices; community-level programs to create sustainable, just and resilient communities; national programs to promote sustainable development; international agreements and governance processes in support of sustainable development goals; and numerous proposed pathways to the deep decarbonization of energy systems. The Clarke Forum theme for spring 2019, SUSTAINABILITY, will focus on many of these big ideas in sustainability, including debates about limits to growth; politicization and communication of science; climate change and social justice; indigenous knowledge; sustainable lifestyles; sustainable tourism; circular economies; arts and sustainable design; food waste; transnational food systems; the roles of technology; and public participation in science.

Mark Blashford

Lanky Yankee Puppet Co.

Jack & Jill

Thursday, April 18, 2019
The Cubiculo, 7 p.m.

A one-man puppet show performed by actor, puppeteer and musician Mark Blashford, featuring hand-carved, folk-toy-inspired puppets and live music. The story addresses water conservation and water rights presented in the style of an Appalachian Jack Tale. Appropriate for children. After the show, Blashford will host a Q&A including a discussion of using children’s art to address serious environmental problems.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Center of Sustainability Education, Alliance for Aquatic Resources Monitoring (ALLARM), and the department of theatre & dance. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Mark Blashford is a Chicago-based actor, puppeteer, and musician. He specializes in traditional puppet performance, including: marionette, shadow, rod, and hand puppetry. As a trained puppet builder, Blashford has studied in Germany, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and the University of Connecticut’s Puppet Arts Program. Blashford is a recipient of The American-Scandinavian Fellowship Award and The Jim and Jane Henson Scholarship Award. In 2018 he was an artist in residence at the University of Central Arkansas for a multidisciplinary Read more

Monica White – Event to be Rescheduled for Fall 2019 or Spring 2020

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Cooperatives and Building Community Wellness

Monday, April 15, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This talk will document the history of Black agricultural cooperatives and the use of food as strategy for freedom, particularly in Detroit, Michigan.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of Africana studies, American studies, the Center for Sustainability Education, and the Food Studies Program. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Monica M. White is an assistant professor of environmental justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and past president of the board of directors of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. She is the first African American woman to earn tenure in both the College of Agricultural Life Sciences and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and teaches courses in urban agriculture and community food systems. Her research investigates communities of color and grassroots organizations engaged in the development of sustainable, community food systems as a strategy to respond to issues of hunger and food inaccessibility. She has presented widely on these subjects, from University of Western Cape in Read more

José-Damian Ruiz-Sinoga

University of Málaga

Soil Degradation as an Indicator of Global Change

Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This talk will analyze the role of soil and its degradation processes as an indicator of Global Climate Change, as crucial for understanding a new framework of sustainability, and as key to establishing mechanisms for adapting to Climate Change.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the departments of environmental studies; Spanish & Portuguese; earth sciences; the Center for Global Study & Engagement; and the Center for Sustainability Education. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography

José-Damian Ruiz-Sinoga is professor of physical geography at the University of Málaga. He is also head researcher of the Physical Geography and Landscape research group. His areas of research include soil-water-plant relationships at different scales, processes of desertification and soil degradation in Mediterranean environments, Incidence of the EU directive of abandonment of crops on soil degradation processes, the role of human and socio-economic aspects in the integral management of watersheds, Global Change indicators in Mediterranean landscapes. and Read more

Linda Hogan

Poet and Novelist

An Evening with Writer Linda Hogan

Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Poet and novelist Linda Hogan will read from a selection of her works, many of which connect to themes related to gender, Indigeneity and the environment.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Women’s & Gender Resource Center and the departments of creative writing, English, American studies and women’s, gender & sexuality studies. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability .

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), former faculty at Indian Arts Institute, writer-in-residence for The Chickasaw Nation, and professor emerita from the University of Colorado, is an internationally recognized public reader, speaker, and writer of poetry, fiction, and essays. In July, 2014, DARK. SWEET. New and Selected Poems, was published from Coffee House Press. Her other books include INDIOS (Wings Press, 2012), a long poem and also a one-woman performance piece; ROUNDING THE HUMAN CORNERS (Coffee House Press, April 2008, Pulitzer nominee) and the well-regarded novel PEOPLE OF THE WHALE (Norton, August 2008). Works include novels MEAN SPIRIT, a winner of the Oklahoma Book Award, Read more

Barbara Brown Wilson

University of Virginia

Resilience for All: Striving for Equity Through Community-Driven Design

Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

This talk will focus on the author’s research on community-driven efforts to make change in underserved communities and the lessons these efforts illuminate for resilience theory and practice. A book sale and signing will follow.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Education and the departments of art & art history and environmental studies. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Barbara Brown Wilson is an assistant professor of urban and environmental planning and the director of inclusion and equity at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. Her research and teaching focus on the history, theory, ethics, and practice of sustainable development, and on the role of urban social movements in the built world. Her work investigates the role of codes (e.g. building, land use, and societal) and coalitions working in the service of more resilient communities. Wilson is particularly interested in the Read more

Beth Norcross – “Wesley Lecturer”

The Center for Spirituality in Nature

Wesley Lecture

Church of the Wild: A New and Old Way of Experiencing Spirituality

Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Norcross will share information about her organization’s new Church of the Wild, that gathers people in nature to celebrate the mutual indwelling of the Divine and the earth. She will discuss how the gathering is attracting both regular church-goers as well as those for whom traditional church is not appealing.

This lecture is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Center for Service, Spirituality and Social Justice with special thanks to the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church and co-sponsored by Division of Student Life; the College Farm; the Center for Sustainability Education; the Women’s & Gender Resource Center; and the departments of religion and environmental studies. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Founder and executive director Beth Norcross brings her training and experience in both theology and ecology in founding and leading the Center for Spirituality in Nature. An enthusiastic and popular teacher, speaker and preacher, she loves to share her passion and Read more

Macarena Gómez-Barris

Pratt Institute

Extractive Zones + Decolonial Praxis

Monday, January 28, 2019
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

Based on her book, The Extractive Zone, this talk explores the old and new sites of land and water defense, and artistic and activist responses to these issues. Gómez-Barris will discuss work from the Américas to argue for alternative modes of living, being, and doing from within and outside of the extractive zones.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and a Civic Learning and Engagement Initiative Grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and co-sponsored by the departments of Latin American, Latino & Caribbean studies; Spanish & Portuguese; environmental studies; art & art history; and anthropology & archaeology. It is part of the Clarke Forum’s semester theme, Sustainability.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Macarena Gómez-Barris is chairperson of the Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies and director of the Global South Center (GSC) at Pratt Institute. She is author of three books including The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives that theorizes social life, art, and decolonial praxis through five extractive scenes of ruinous capitalism upon Indigenous territories (Duke University Press, 2017). Gómez-Barris’s recent book Read more