4th EASLCE Webinar: Where is feminism in the environmental humanities?
Date and Time: September 28th, 2013, 4:00 PM Central European Standard Time
Transcript of Webinar and related media files >
Participants:
Sarah Beckham Hoof, University of Lappland, Finnland
Cathy Fitzgerald, National College of Art and Design, Ireland
Kate Huber, University of Leiden, Netherlands
Serenella Iovino, University of Torino, Italy
Agnes Kneitz, Renmin University, China
Serpil Oppermann, Hacettepe University, Turkey
Kaadri Tüür, University of Tallinn, Estonia
Host: Prof. Greta Gaard, University of Wisconsin
Moderator: Hannes Bergthaller, National Chung-Hsing University
Where is feminism in the environmental humanities and sciences? Was Rachel Carson a scientist, a creative nonfiction writer, or the foremother of environmental feminism? As Sandra Harding explains in her classic book, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? (1991), “thinking from women’s lives” and women’s perspectives uncovers information that is often excluded by mainstream sciences—and climate change is a case in point. Within those nations and communities on the front lines of climate change, women bear the greatest hardships due to existing gender inequalities, poverty, lack of education and political voice. Yet, though organizations such as GenderCC, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and even the United Nations regularly emphasize the critical importance of involving women’s experiences in planning strategies for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, women—and their additional knowledge about climate change–are still largely excluded from leadership and participation in research and public policy decision-making.
This EASLCE Seminar is offered as a vehicle for exploring the role of feminism in the formation and development of the environmental humanities. Participants are invited to read a select set of essays with specific questions in mind, and to think critically, preparing themselves for an informed discussion, and noting other questions as they arise.
A transcript of Professor Gaard’s talk, an audio recording of the webinar, and responses by several of the participants can be found here
Greta Gaard is an educator, writer, scholar and activist working at the intersections of literature, feminism, social and environmental justice. As an ecofeminist, Gaard worked within the U.S. Green movement for a decade, co-founding the Minnesota Green Party in 1993. Developments within the national movement, along with the contradictions between democracy and electoral politics, are described in her 1998 volume, Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens. For the past decade, Gaard’s activism has addressed issues of economic globalization, water democracy, maternal profiling, and interspecies justice. She is currently a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and a Community Faculty in Women’s Studies at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, MN.
For more information about her work, please visit: http://gretagaard.efoliomn.com/
