Confronting the Climate Crisis: Feminist Pathways Symposium

Oct 7, 2020 - Oct 9, 2020 | Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights
Online
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This symposium aims to call attention not only to the climate crisis, but also to what is at stake in the kinds of responses to it that are proposed. Many of the proposed “fixes” are rooted in the same political economic paradigms and worldviews that created the current climate and ecological crises in the first place; they often not only pose great environmental risks themselves, but also threaten to gravely deepen existing gender, racial and global inequalities. However, there are also encouraging signs that many activists and researchers are approaching climate breakdown with a global justice perspective. Our goal is to highlight, among them, the critically important work being done by diverse feminist thinkers, from feminist political economists and ecologists to indigenous and racial justice activists, who outline the sorts of radical solutions that the crisis demands, proposing fundamental shifts in the dominant global economic model. Throughout, we explore how intersectional feminist analysis, with an emphasis on global justice, can lead to the fundamental transformations urgently needed to forestall climate catastrophe. 

The symposium, Confronting the Climate Crisis: Feminist Pathways to Just and Sustainable Futures, will take place over three consecutive days in five sessions.

AGENDA

Wednesday, October 7th

9:00AM - 11:30AM (Boston, GMT-4)

Feminist Approaches to the Climate Crisis

Framing the Symposium

Carol Cohn, Director, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights

Panel: Feminist Approaches to the Climate Crisis

  • Indigenous Feminism and Challenging the Climate Crisis Narrative, Deborah McGregor, Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice, York University
  • African Feminisms and Climate Justice, Shailja Patel, Research Associate, Five College Women's Studies Research Center
  • Toward an Ecofeminist Green New Deal? Reflections on Politics, Process and Prospects, Sherilyn MacGregor, Reader in Environmental Politics, University of Manchester 
  • Petro-Bromance: Masculinities Driving the Climate Crisis, Joni Seager, Professor of Global Studies, Bentley University
  • Pandemic and Protest as Potential Portal beyond Patriarchy, Reverend Mariama White Hammond, Founding Pastor of New Roots AME Church, Dorchester, MA

Thursday, October 8th

9:00AM - 11:00AM (Boston, GMT-4)

Feminist Critiques of Mainstream “Solutions”  

  • Climate Non-Negotiables: Not “Something that Markets Can Handle”, Anita Nayar, Director, Regions Refocus
  • Rebooting the Scarcity Scare: Population, Conflict and Climate Change, Betsy Hartmann, Professor Emerita of Development Studies, Hampshire College
  • Injustices of Solar Geoengineering: A Feminist, Antiracist Perspective on the Ultimate Technological Fix, Jennie Stephens, Director, School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs; Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy; Director for Strategic Research Collaborations, Global Resilience Institute, Northeastern University
  • Women, E-Waste and Technological Solutions to Climate Change, Lucy McAllister, Postdoctoral Researcher of Sustainability, Technical University of Munich, Center for Energy Markets
  • Confronting the Climate Crisis: A View From Feminist Economics, Julie Nelson, Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston

Thursday, October 8th

11:30AM - 1:30PM (Boston, GMT-4)

Perspectives on Gender, Development and the Climate Crisis

  • More than (Wo)men: Why Intersectionality is Critical for Effective and Just Adaptation, Edward Carr, Director and Professor of the International Development, Community, and Environment Department, Clark University
  • Weathering Development on an Empty Stomach: Women Farmers, Climate Precarity, and the Fate of the "Green Revolution" in Mozambique, Heidi Gengenbach, Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Gender Perspectives in UN Climate Processes, Maria Ivanova, Director of Center for Governance and Sustainability, and Director of the Global Environmental Governance Project, and Candace Famiglietti, PhD student, Global Governance and Human Security, University of Massachusetts Boston
  • Feminist Fears in Gender(ed) Discourses of Sustainable Development and the Environment, Kiran Asher, Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst 
  • Trade, Climate Change and Gender: Challenges for Development and Social and Gender Equity, Mariama Williams, Programme Coordinator, Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Gender, South Centre

Friday, October 9th

9:00AM - 11:00AM (Boston, GMT-4)

Feminist Pathways to Just and Sustainable Futures, Part 1

  • Engendering Just Transitions: Dilemmas in Climate Policy, Seema Arora-Jonsson, Professor, Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
  • Towards Gender-Transformative Change: Experience of the Climate Investment Funds, Anne Kuriakose, Senior Social Development Specialist, Climate Investment Funds (CIF) 
  • Care Not Growth: Rethinking Sustainability, Giovanna Di Chiro, Professor of Environmental Studies, Swarthmore College
  • Feminist "Just Transitions" and the Sustainability of Peace, Carol Cohn, Director, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, and Claire Duncanson, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Edinburgh

Friday, October 9th

11:30AM - 1:30PM (Boston, GMT-4)

Feminist Pathways to Just and Sustainable Futures, Part 2

  • Healing the Land is Healing Ourselves: Indigenous Solutions to Climate Change, Lindsey Bacigal, Communications Director, Indigenous Climate Action
  • Towards a Feminist Green New Deal, Bridget Burns, Director, Women’s Environment and Development Organization
  • Fertilizing Engagement: Building Trans-Community Collaborations Inspiring and Moving Us toward Climate Justice, .O, Climate and Social Justice Activist in Philadelphia
  • Revolutionary Power: An Activist's Love Letter to Heal the Planet and Transform Our Energy System, Shalanda Baker, Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University
  • Transnational Feminist Analysis: Spotlighting Pitfalls and Pathways on the Road to a Just, Sustainable Future, Yifat Susskind, Executive Director, MADRE

Who: Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights

Where: Online

When:  7 October – 9 October 2020