Climate and Environmental Justice Conference Convenes Academic, Community and Faith-based Collaborators for Action
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 24, 2023— Santa Clara University will mark Earth Week with a Climate & Environmental Justice Conference to build stronger partnerships among faith-based and secular institutions and promote climate and environmental justice in Northern California, Latin America, and Jesuit higher education worldwide.
Organized by the University’s Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative and co-sponsored by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, the conference will take place from April 27 to 29, 2023 at Santa Clara University and online.
The conference will bring together faculty, students, community organizers, policymakers, Indigenous elders, social ministry leaders, and funders for dialogues, keynotes, panels, a poster session, and professional development workshops. The event will focus on building community-university alliances and research partnerships to produce actionable knowledge and social change with communities on the frontlines of environmental threats.
"If we’re going to address the crises of climate and environmental justice, we have to listen to our most vulnerable communities to understand the challenges we are all facing and the solutions we need to pursue together," said Christopher Bacon, the coordinator of the Conference Organizing Committee. “Academic institutions will need to take a more community-driven, participatory approach to research, teaching, and advocacy than we have in the past.”
The conference will help create a roadmap for these partnerships by focusing on four strategies:
- Centering discussion of how climate and environmental threats are shaped by inequalities of race, Indigeneity, and income
- Building trust and relationships across differences to strengthen organizations and collective action
- Producing actionable knowledge in accessible and useful formats
- Educating and training for personal and collective transformation. The conference will also create opportunities for Catholic philanthropy to advance environmental justice and the common good.
The event is free, and registration is open to all. Plenary sessions will be livestreamed on Zoom and will take place in-person at Santa Clara University.
"We are excited to welcome participants from around the world to this unique conference. We aim to build bridges among a broad range of participants to address the urgent work facing all of us," said Iris Stewart-Frey, co-coordinator of the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative.
For more information on the conference, registration, and the program, visit the conference website.
Program Contact
For questions, please email environmentaljustice@scu.edu.
Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Communications | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121