Black Environmentalisms Symposium

Date: 13-14 October 2022 (9am-6pm)
Sterling Library Lecture Hall (1st Floor Sterling Memorial Library)

Organized by Cajetan Iheka (English) and Jonathan Howard (English and African American Studies)

In the tradition of previous efforts to organize the diaspora around urgent questions besetting Black life, the Black Environmentalisms symposium convenes scholars, writers, artists, and practitioners grappling with Black environmental precarity across the diaspora. As we survive, subvert, and live against the grain of the Anthropocene, it is time we gather to compare notes. The symposium aims to recalibrate the theory and practice of environmental studies from a Black humanistic angle. In our usage, Black environmentalisms point to the multiple worldmaking projects anchored in Black cultures and epistemologies. The theme is a bold signpost to the ambitious paradigms, original research questions, and new lines of inquiry in the environmental humanities that we hope will emerge from this symposium. Centering Black communities as ground zero for equitable planetary changes and insightful epistemologies, the symposium contributes to the important project of putting African and African diaspora studies in mutually sustaining dialogue while enriching environmental studies.

Please direct questions to: yaleblackenvironmentalisms@gmail.com.

Sponsors:

Yale Environmental Humanities Program
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Department of English
Whitney Humanities Center
Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM)
The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund
Yale Council on African Studies
Belonging at Yale Initiative 
Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning
The Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Provost’s Fund for the Promotion of Africa
The Stephen and Ruth Hendel Fund for Africa
Department of African American Studies

NOTE: Masks are required