Events
Upcoming Events
The Summer 2024 Academic Events Calendar (including arts programming) will be posted soon!
Interdisciplinary and Critical Approaches to Sustainability
April 24, 2024: 8:30 am - 6:00 pm
AGSC (Atlanta Global Studies Center) invites you to join our conference on Interdisciplinary and Critical Approaches to Sustainability, entitled “Sustainability in a Planet of Diverse Knowledges and Persistent Inequalities”.
The morning session will feature panels of faculty from Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, College of Design, Institute of People and Technology, the College of Engineering, and College of Science, all in dialogue with faculty from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The afternoon will focus on critical approaches to the concept of sustainability, featuring scholars from across the Institute and two keynote events: Nelson Maldonado-Torres's "Colonial and Decolonial Sustainabilities" and Jessica Hernandez's "Indigenous Science: From Local to Global Context." Click here to register.
The Spring 2024 edition of the Energy Listening Sessions is coming up!
There will be an informal "listening session" held on Tuesday, April 23 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Swann 106 to share thoughts about energy and sustainability. Stop by to chat with your peers about the societal impacts of producing and consuming energy and how this relates to sustainability, city planning, and environmental concerns more generally.
There will be snacks!
Learn about climate change, discuss options for the future, and get excited to take action!
The Climate Fresk is an interactive, collaborative card game that help participants understand the causes and effects of climate change. Worldwide, more than 1.5 million people have participated in a Climate Fresk session in 157 countries. Sessions take about 3.5 hours and include an introduction, the game, and time for discussion. Learn more here.
Past Events
Research Forum: Environmental Humanities
You are cordially invited to attend the spring 2024 ML Research Forum on April 9, 2024 at 3:30 pm in the Wilby classroom G120 in the Crosland Tower (and via Teams) where Brigitte Stepanov and Miguel Rosas Buendia will present their research and talk about the work in their labs to kick off a discussion on environmental humanities in and outside of ML. Each colleague will present 20 minutes with 20 minutes for Q&A.
Brigitte Stepanov will present on "Epistemologies of Energy: Infrastructure, Community, Poetics" and Miguel Rosas Buendia will present on "Andean Mining Landscapes: Science, Society and Culture."
Learn more here.
Global Media Fest
The Global Media Festival is the GT School of Modern Languages’ annual film and discussion series focusing on sustainability across languages and cultures. The 2024 festival explores themes around a variety of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All screenings are free and open to the public. They include complementary popcorn and catering.
Highlights of this year’s festival include the screening of “Bigger Than Us” (France), a documentary by director Flore Vasseur about the struggle of young activists featuring Melati Wijsen, Memory Banda, Mohamad Al Jounde, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Winnie Tushabe, Rene Silva, and Mary Finn.
Learn more about the film here.
View each film screening event and RSVP via Eventbrite.
Co-sponsored by the School of Modern Languages; the Atlanta Global Studies Center; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems.
Film Screening
The film's director, Flore Vasseur
Atomic Aesthetics
On the heels of in-class discussions focused on Hiroshima mon amour and Oppenheimer, the SLS program continues its analyses of atomic aesthetics with two events. Join us on November 21, 2023 from 5-8:30pm for an origami masterclass followed by a film screening and further discussion centered on nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, non-proliferation, and peacebuilding.
Learn more about peace cranes here.
Artist Talks/Artists Talk: An Ecology of Objects
Join us on November 16, 2023 from 5-6pm for a discussion with the artists of "An Ecology of Objects" at the GT-E Kiosk. Learn more about the artists' mixed media process and approach to representing environmental concerns today.
Croissants and French Study Abroad Info Session
The current SLS cohort will be sharing perspectives online during this session!
Doing Energy and Environmental History: A Conversation between Charles-François Mathis and Brigitte Stepanov
Join us for a discussion about why historical analyses – and humanistic modes of thought more broadly – are indispensable to understanding how societies fuel themselves and conceive of energy over time. We will be focusing on how evaluating past notions of energy can allow us to take better stock of our current energy crises and help us find equitable and just solutions moving forward.
Charles-François Mathis is a professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a member of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary History. Former president of the University Network of Researchers on Environmental History, he is on the editorial committee of the Environment and History journal and director of the “The Environment has a History” collection, published by Champ Vallon. A specialist of environmental and British history, he is notably the author of In Nature We Trust. Les paysages anglais à l’ère industrielle (In Nature We Trust: English landscapes in the Industrial Age), Greening the City: Nature in French Towns from the 17th Century, co-authored with Emilie-Anne Pépy (The White Horse Press, 2020), and La Civilisation du Charbon (Coal Civilization, Vendémiaire, 2021).
_____________________________________________________
Charles-François Mathis est Professeur d’histoire contemporaine à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, membre de l’Institut d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine. Ancien président du Réseau Universitaire de Chercheurs en Histoire Environnementale, il est membre du comité éditorial de la revue Environment and History et dirige la collection « L’Environnement a une histoire », chez Champ Vallon. Spécialiste d’histoire environnementale et britannique, il est notamment l’auteur de In Nature We Trust. Les paysages anglais à l’ère industrielle (2010), de La Ville végétale. Une histoire de la nature en milieu urbain (France, XVIIe – XXIe siècles), coécrit avec Emilie-Anne Pépy (2017) et de La Civilisation du Charbon (Vendémiaire, 2021).
What (is) Universalism? Planetary Poetics and an Ecology of the Cosmos: A Conversation between Maboula Soumahoro and Brigitte Stepanov
Join us for an (eco)critical discussion about universalism, planetary understandings of "world," and being and belonging in the "era of the Anthropocene."
Maboula Soumahoro is an associate professor at the University of Tours and president of the Black History Month Association, dedicated to celebrating Black history and cultures. A specialist in the field of Africana Studies, she has conducted research and taught in several universities and prisons in the United States and France and was most recently the inaugural Villa Albertine Resident in Atlanta (2021-2022). From 2013 to 2017, Soumahoro served as a member of the National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery. She is the author of Le Triangle et l’Hexagone, réflexions sur une identité noire, translated in English by Kaiama L. Glover as Black Is the Journey, Africana the Name and prefaced by Saidiya Hartman. This book was distinguished by the FetKann! Maryse Condé Literary Prize in 2020. In 2022-2023, Maboula Soumahoro will be an international visiting professor at the African-American and Africana Studies Department of Columbia University as well as a visiting faculty at Bennington College. In 2023-2024 she is a fellow at the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination. She translated from English À perte de mère – Sur les routes atlantiques de l’esclavage (original title: Lose Your Mother. A Journey Along The Atlantic Slave) released in September 2023.
_____________________________________________________
Maboula Soumahoro a obtenu un doctorat en civilisations du monde anglophone. Elle est aujourd’hui spécialiste en études étatsuniennes, africaines-américaines africaines et de la diaspora noire/africaine. Maîtresse de conférences à l’université de Tours (France), elle a également étudié et enseigné au sein de nombreux autres établissements scolaires et pénitentiaires en France et aux États-Unis : Bennington College, Columbia University (New York et Paris) et Barnard College, Bard Prison Initiative, Stanford University (Paris), Sciences Po (Paris et Reims), les prisons de Bois-d’Arcy, Villepinte (quartier des mineurs) et Fresnes. Ellea été résidente de la Villa Albertine à Atlanta entre novembre 2021 et janvier 2022. De 2013 à 2016, Maboula Soumahoro a été membre du Comité National pour l’Histoire et la Mémoire de l’Esclavage (CNMHE). Depuis 2013, Maboula Soumahoro préside l’association Black History Month (BHM), dédiée à la célébration de l’histoire et des cultures du monde noir. Elle est notamment l’autrice du Triangle et l’Hexagone : réflexions sur une identité noire (La Découverte, 2020) traduit en anglais sous le titre Black is the Journey, Africana the Name (Polity, 2021) et qui a reçu la mention spéciale du Prix Littéraire FETKANN! Maryse Condé en 2020. En 2022-2023, Maboula Soumahoro est professeure internationale invitée au département des études afro-américaines et africaines de l’Université de Columbia ainsi que professeure invitée au Bennington College. Son année 2023-2024 se déroulera à l’Institut des idées et de l’imagination de l’Université Columbia. Elle traduit de l’anglais À perte de mère – Sur les routes atlantiques de l’esclavage (titre original : Lose Your Mother. A Journey Along The Atlantic Slave Route, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) sorti en septembre 2023 (Brook).
Climate Fresk/La Fresque du Climat
Learn about climate change, discuss options for the future, and get excited to take action with guest Léa Ovet, environmental engineer and Climate Fresk facilitator, and SLS-France Director, Dr. Stepanov. The Climate Fresk is a collaborative workshop that teaches participants the fundamental science behind climate change and empowers them to make cha
Léa Ovet is an AgroParisTech engineer specializing in climate and environmental management. After a year traveling around the Mediterranean basin, meeting various actors involved in adapting to climate change, she became aware of the urgency of the current ecological crisis and decided to devote her professional life to the fight against climate change and the preservation of other Planetary Boundaries.
Her professional experience with Blue Choice, the decarbonization strategy consulting firm, has given her a wide vision of the challenges facing different sectors. As a result, she now works for all kinds of companies, as well as public institutions, organizing training sessions based on the Climate Fresk within these organizations and helping participants understand the issues in their own sector and their power to take action.
She facilitates workshops on environmental issues, such as the Climate and Biodiversity Fresks, and their related levers of action, such as Inventing our Low-Carbon Lives and 2-Tonnes.
_____________________________________________________
Léa Ovet est ingénieure AgroParisTech, spécialisée en climat et gestion de l’environnement. Après une année de voyage autour du bassin méditerranéen à rencontrer des acteurs de l’adaptation au changement climatique, elle prend conscience de l’urgence des crises écologiques actuelles et décide de consacrer sa vie professionnelle à la lutte contre le changement climatique et à la préservation des autres limites planétaires.
Son expérience professionnelle dans le cabinet de conseil en stratégie de décarbonation Blue Choice, lui a donné une vision large des enjeux des différents secteurs. Cela lui permet aujourd’hui de travailler pour tous types d’entreprises, mais aussi pour les pouvoirs publics, en organisant des déploiements de la fresque du climat au sein de ces organisations, en aidant les participants à comprendre les enjeux de leur propre secteur, et leur pouvoir d’action.
Elle anime à la fois des ateliers sur le constat, comme les fresques du climat, de la biodiversité, mais aussi sur les leviers d’action, comme inventons nos vies bas carbones et 2 tonnes.
The Fall 2023 edition of the Energy Listening Sessions is here!
There will be an informal “listening session” held on Tuesday, Oct. 12 from 2 – 3:15 p.m. in the Blue Room at Georgia Tech-Europe to share thoughts about energy and sustainability. Stop by to chat with your peers and guest speaker Léa Ovet, climate fresk facilitator and educator, about the societal impacts of producing and consuming energy and how this relates to sustainability, city planning, and environmental concerns more generally.
There will be snacks!
Nuclear History
Join us for a conversation with Bo Jacobs about nuclear history.
Robert Jacobs is a professor of history at the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Graduate School of Peace Studies of Hiroshima City University. He is a historian of science and technology focused on nuclear technologies and radiation technopolitics. His book, Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha (Yale 2022), presents over a decade of field research conducted in more than 20 countries on the effects of radiation exposures to individuals and communities from nuclear weapon testing, production, and accidents, globally. He has published and edited multiple books and articles on nuclear history and culture. In a previous life, he was a chef and worked in the organic produce industry.
Energy Listening Sessions
Photographed from left to right: ECE professor Dr. Lukas Graber, student Kayla McRae, and student Rachel Chin
ETL will host two informal “listening sessions” on
Tuesday, March 28th from 6:30-7:30pm in Swann 106
and
Thursday, March 30th from 6:30-7:30pm in Swann 106
to share thoughts about energy and sustainability.
Stop by at any point during the hour on either day (or both!) to chat with your peers and professors about the societal impacts of producing and consuming energy and how this relates to sustainability, city planning, and environmental concerns more generally.
There will be snacks!
The Rights of Nature
Felwine Sarr and Brigitte Stepanov discuss the rights of nature (and the judicial frames supporting such rights) at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights
National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta
An instrumental relationship with Nature, inherited from the mechanistic cosmology of Western modernity, has led us to violently enslave the earth, exploit the humans and non-humans who populate it, and jeopardize the very conditions that allow for the reproduction of life. The “Rights of Nature” movement advocates for ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, and mountains to bear legal rights in the same manner as human beings. This movement is striving for a paradigm shift in which Nature is placed at the center and humans are connected to it in an interdependent way, rather than a dominant one. But who is entitled to talk on the behalf of Nature? Are we projecting an anthropocentric perspective onto Nature by applying to it our juridical fictions? Are there other ways of repairing and taking care of Nature outside of the law? Join Senegalese author and thinker Felwine Sarr and Georgia Tech assistant professor and artist Brigitte Stepanov for an inspiring conversation on the Rights of Nature.
The “Conflict Minerals” Paradigm: Ecology, Technology, and Power
Join us for a conversation with Josaphat Musamba about the intersection of resource extraction, systems of governance, armed conflict, and security – and the urgent ecological crisis that is inextricable from the technologies that define our modern world.
Josaphat Musamba is a Congolese researcher of conflict, DDR (Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration) processes, security dynamics, and mining governance with the Study Group on Conflicts and Human Security at the University Research Center of Kivu. He has worked for several NGOs in Eastern Congo as a consultant and liaison officer and was a member of the DR Congo UN Group of Experts 2016-2017 Mandate (Congolese staff). He holds a master’s degree from the Catholic University of Louvain and in 2019 began his PhD at Ghent University with the Conflict Research Group. Currently, he is working on the social anthropology of security practices and conflict dynamics in the Bwito chieftaincy (North Kivu) and Haut Plateaux of Fizi, Itombwe, and Uvira (South Kivu).