Creativity, Inspiration, Multiculturalism and Environmental Participation in the 21st Century

About the lecture

The 20th and 21st Centuries are when we met the world, whether through travel, or through mass media and the Internet. It has created a fundamentally different framework that challenges who we are. It has made us realise that we need to think more deeply about how we are interdependent of each other. Sustainable development depends on the relationship of people to nature, and the relationship of people to each other. We now have the task of working out how we may seek to understand diverse ways of being, recognise and use indigenous knowledge, and take advantage of the contribution of diverse cultural visions of nature.  This shift means that we need to rethink how we see the world.

This talk is about multicultural engagement and explores how cultural ways of seeing and being, rethinking our identity, and how we read our landscapes and interpret our joint histories may enable us to be excited, inspired and creative in our efforts to collaborate in the shaping of our future and the care and protection of the earth.

The talk + Q&A will start at 5.45pm and be followed by a networking reception from 6.45pm.

For access information, please click here.

Please be aware that this talk will be filmed, if you have any queries about this at all please contact bseer-communications@ucl.ac.uk.

Download the presentation

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About the speaker

Judy Ling Wong, painter, poet and environmentalist is best known as the Honorary President of Black Environment Network  (BEN). For 27 years she was the UK Director of BEN, with an international reputation as the pioneer and creator of the field of multi-cultural participation in the built and natural environment. Judy is a major voice on policy towards social inclusion, contributing through key national committees and campaigns. She was awarded an OBE for pioneering multicultural environmental participation in 2000, and a CBE for services to heritage in 2007.  Her present committee membership includes DEFRA Civil Society Partnership Network – Vice Chair, National Park City Foundation – Founding Trustee, The UK Urban Ecology Forum – Vice Chair, Sowing the Seeds Network – Chair, IUCN/WCPA Urban Conservation Strategies Specialist Group, Countryside and Community Research Institute – Advisory Board, Aluna – Cultural Strategy Development Group, Tree Charter Board – Member, Population Matters – Advisory Group.