Events
Upcoming Events
Check back later for more upcoming events!
Past Events
2023-2024 Academic Year
April 4. Joel K. Bourne, “The End of Plenty.” Center Building 200, noon. Bourne is a journalist and writer specialized in global agriculture, international food trade, hunger, and food security. He regularly writes for the National Geographic. He is the author of The End of Plenty: The Race to Feed a Crowded World (W. W. Norton, 2015) (https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393352962). His website is http://www.joelkbournejr.com/. Sponsored by Climate and Environmental Studies and by the Sociology Department. Sponsored by the Climate and Environmental Studies Program.
Monday, March 18. Noon lunch. Susanna Pho, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Forerunner. Center Building 200. “Forunner is a passionate team of engineers, designers, strategists, and planners who are committed to mitigating the impacts of climate change. Our comprehensive and reliable tools empower communities to better prepare, respond, and plan for the future. Forerunner’s software consolidates property-level flood risk information to streamline floodplain management, support disaster recovery efforts, educate residents, and more. Our tailored support helps communities save time, decrease costs, assess risk, and take action.” Sponsored by the Climate and Environmental Studies Program.
Monday, Feb. 19, Noon lunch. Andrew Alesbury, Managing Director of Telesto Strategy. Sponsored by Climate and Environmental Studies. Center Building 200. Telesto Strategy is a consulting firm, in their words: “We are a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and ESG-focused strategy consulting firm founded with a bold vision to support businesses and governments in the regeneration of the planet’s health, resources, and wellbeing. Andrew transitioned to the firm intentionally after a successful career at McKinsey.” Sponsored by the Climate and Environmental Studies Program.
Tuesday, Feb. 13, Dr. Kali Rubaii (Department of Anthropology, Purdue University). “Toxic Hazards of War Along the Chain of Supply. Tues Feb 13 4:10 pm in Furman 114. There will be a lunch at 12:30. Kali Rubaii is an Iraqi-American anthropologist at Purdue whose forthcoming book is on everyday experiences of health and the legacies of the U.S. invasion of Central Iraq. She is also in the midst of an innovative interdisciplinary project tracing the trajectories of waste and toxicity related to the US invasion and occupation and documenting contamination patterns in community soil and water. Sponsored by Medicine, Health, and Society and Climate and Environmental Studies.
Nov. 6. Rand 308. 3:10pm. Samuel Dolbee, an assistant professor in the Vanderbilt History Department, will be presenting his work, Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East, recently published by Cambridge University Press. An excerpt of the book will be precirculated for discussion. Begüm Adalet of Cornell University will be providing the comment.
Oct. 23. Discussion of Dr. Calynn Dowler’s work-in-progress article, “Staging Survival: Popular Performance and More-than-Human Flourishing in the Sundarbans.” Dr. Dowler is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt.
Oct. 16. 12:10. Dr. Celeste Ray, Director of Environmental Arts and Humanities and Chair of Anthropology at Sewanee University. “Ethnoscience, Climate Change, and Regenerative Heritage Practices at Ireland’s Holy Wells.” Anthropology Department.
Oct. 10. Anthony Lanzillo (alumnus). “Critical Reflections and Radical Choices: Changing Our Lives in a Climate-Changed World.” Tone Lanzillo is a reporter of climate change for two newspapers in Duluth, Minnesota. He also produced the Climate>Duluth series for PACT-TV, helped coordinate local climate initiatives with Climate Clock, Worldwide Teach-In on Climate & Justice and Duluth Climate Mobilization. Currently, working on the clima÷praxis project, World Climate School and Climate Maze. Also, writing for Climate Steps, The Human Exploring Society and Writers Rebel. Tone graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1976 with a degree in political science.
Sept. 11. 4pm. Welcome back event cohosted by the Climate and Environmental Studies Program and the Robert Penn Warren Center.
2022-2023
The following is a partial list of events this academic year, some of which were cohosted by the Climate and Environmental Studies Program
Jan. 26. Dorecta Taylor (Yale University). “Martin Luther King Jr: The Intersection of Civil Rights and Environmental Justice.” 12 noon.
Feb. 7. Ömür Harmanşah (The University of Illinois at Chicago). “The Archaeology of Landscapes and Architectural Heritage in a Changing Climate: Fieldwork in/for the Anthropocene.” 4:10pm.
Feb. 28. Smart Jobs Summit. Moderated by Stephen Ornes and Amanada Little. 4:30pm.
March 24. John Vick (Director of the Office of Primary Prevention at the Tennessee Department of Health and alumnus of Peabody College). 12:10pm. Resilience, Extreme Events, Climate Change, and Human Health. He has been engaged in Nashville’s Heat Mapping Project and has staff working under his direction on the TN State Health Plan. He discussed some of the connections between resilience, extreme events, climate change, and human health.
March 24. David Hondula (Department of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University and the director of the City of Phoenix’s Office of Heat Response and Planning). Resilience in the city of Phoenix. 12:10 pm.
April 20. Neil Ahuja (U. Maryland) and Aimee Bahng (Pomona College). Critical Environmental Studies Across Asian America and the Pacific: A Symposium with Neel Ahuja and Aimee Bahng. 10:30am.
2021-2022
Vanderbilt students attend COP26 to observe climate diplomacy in action
November 2021—Fourteen undergraduate students and two graduate students represented Vanderbilt University 3,923 miles away in Glasgow, Scotland, as official delegates to the United Nations international climate change negotiations—dubbed COP26. The extraordinary opportunity was facilitated by Leah Dundon, director of the Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative, who secured for Vanderbilt official United Nations Observer status in 2019. The U.N. accreditation enabled Vanderbilt students to attend the conference for a second year, in part through an interdisciplinary A&S Honors Seminar on climate change taught by Dundon. Read more…