Sustainability as Cultural Practice

Sustainability as Cultural Practice: Verbal and Visual Art, History and the Environmental Humanities is a series of four roundtable events, organised by the UCL Cities Partnerships Programme, in collaboration with the British School at Rome (BSR) and the British Embassy in Italy.

The series is part of the All4Climate – Italy 2021 Pre-COP26 Programme, a lineup of events promoting 2021 as a landmark year for climate ambition, launched by the newly established Italian Ministry for the Ecological Transition.

The roundtables will bring together scholars from UCL Anthropocene, SELCS, Slade School of Fine Art, Institute of Global Health and Faculty of Arts and Humanities, as well as from UCL's partners including New York University, Princeton University, Oxford University, Kings College London and University of Nottingham.

All events are open to the public. More details and registration links below:

YOUTH, CLIMATE ADVOCACY, AND VERBAL ART: IMAGINING A DIFFERENT FUTUREFriday 2 July, 15:00-18:00 BST (16.00–19.00 CET)

With Anthony Costello (UCL), Liz Jensen, Sara Marzagora (KCL), Arya Matai, Almaaz Mudaly, Hélène Neveu Kringelbach (UCL), Isiah Odhiambo, Bernard Okebe, Charline Atieno Opiyo, Harriet O’Neill, Steve Otieno, Aarathi Prasad (UCL). Chaired by Florian Mussgnug (UCL).

Climate advocacy and political activism require imagination. In conversation with writer and environmentalist Liz Jensen, British and Italian researchers in literary studies and global health will explore how verbal art can inspire behavioural and policy change on a warming planet, with specific attention to the young.

See the full programme and register here.

COPING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE IN PAST SOCIETIESFriday 9 July, 15:00-18:00 BST (16.00–19.00 CET)

John Haldon (Princeton), John Sabapathy (UCL) and Chris Wickham (BSR; Oxford). Chaired by Georgina Endfield (Liverpool).

The panel will consider how humans in different past societies responded to changes in climate, and how they overcame them – or failed to. We need to understand how this worked if we are to understand how to manage the climate crisis. History has lessons here, which technologically more complex contemporary societies need to take into account, and learn from.

Register here.

SUSTAINABLE ART PRACTICE FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLDFriday 16 July, 15:00-18:00 BST (16.00–19.00 CET)

With Susan Collins (UCL), Onya McCausland (UCL), Harriet O’Neill (BSR; RHUL) and Marta Pellerini (BSR).

How can artists flag the importance of political action on climate change? Practitioners, academics and policy-makers from the UK and Italy will discuss the power of art to draw attention to environmental degradation and ask how its production can be both sustainable and engage with wider sustainability initiatives, in relation to communities and place. 

Register here.

TRANSLATING CLIMATE CHANGEMonday 19 July, 15:00-18:00 BST (16.00–19.00 CET)

Emily Apter (NYU), Federico Federici (UCL), Anna Lora-Wainwright (Oxford), Loredana Polezzi (Stony Brook), Antonia Walford (UCL). Chaired by Andrew Barry (UCL) and Florian Mussgnug (UCL).

Climate change is a global problem, yet our understandings of, for example, environment, crisis, climate, transition, and sustainability differs across languages and cultures. In this panel, we explore these patterns of difference, in policy, science, and everyday discourse, across dominant and minority languages, including the languages of indigenous people. 

Register here.

Organisers

• Professor Florian Mussgnug (Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies, School of European Languages, Culture and Society, University College London).
• Dr Harriet O’Neill (Assistant Director for the Humanities and Social Sciences, British School at Rome; Honorary Research Associate, School of Modern Languages, Royal Holloway, University of London).
• Professor Chris Wickham FBA (Director, British School at Rome; Chichele Professor of Medieval History (Emeritus); Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford).

Image by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash

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