Teaching for Environmental Peacebuilding: Ways of Knowing and Acting [EnPAx Education Interest Group]

Theme Icon - Conservation, Conflict, and Cooperation Theme Icon - Environmental Change, Displacement, and Mobility Theme Icon - Extractivism, Emerging Technologies, and the Energy Transition Theme Icon - Law, Power, and Decolonization Theme Icon - Reimagining Environmental Peacebuilding

Date & Time
Jun 19, 2026 | 9.00 - 10.30

Participants
Nancy Boyer, University of Delaware (United States)
Philippe LeBillon, University of British Columbia (Canada)
Elaine Hsaio, Kent State University (United States)
Liliana Pimentel, EnPAx Water Interest Group (Brazil)

How do we educate and engage our students at this complex global moment, marked by geopolitical crises, changing social attitudes, and controversies around emerging technologies such as AI? This interdisciplinary roundtable aims to highlight and explore ways of teaching epistemologies, ethics, and agency in environmental peacebuilding. The roundtable will include de-colonial perspectives and facilitate integration of indigenous, faith-based, and Global South perspectives as well as the Global North. Likely topics include teaching of the evolution and current roles of international law, mineral sourcing challenges of the green energy transition, and the energy and water demands of AI infrastructure. How do we ensure that topics such as these are engaged in ways that center ethics, international law and standards for human rights, the role of human dignity, and positive visions of the future? The session will encourage short presentations by invited roundtable participants, drawing on their own experiences with teaching and learning in our field, with plenty of time for open discussion. The Education Interest Group aims to invite scholars, practitioners and educators from multiple regions and perspectives to share their perspectives and current teaching practices.

Speakers include:

Philippe LeBillon, philippe.lebillon@ubc.ca, University of British Columbia (Canada)
Elaine Hsaio, ehsiao1@kent.edu, Kent State University (USA)
Päivi Lujala, PaiviLujala@oulu.fi, University of Oulu (Finland)
Liliana Pimentel, lilianapimentel@uol.com.br, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (Brazil)
Joram Tarusarira, j.tarusarira@rug.nl, University of Groningen (Netherlands)