Environmental Studies

Core Conversations: Uncertainty
Mez Baker-Medard, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Middlebury College
Kathryn Morse, John C. Elder Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of History, Middlebury College
Alexis Mychajliw, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology, Middlebury College

This panel discussion features performing artists from Small Island Big Song to discuss the impacts of climate change and explore how the arts can influence our relationship with the environment. Small Island Big Song is a collaborative multi-platform project uniting indigenous musicians across the Pacific and Indian Oceans through song in the face of climate change and cultural loss.

Moderator: BaoBao Chen (Taiwan), Producer/Manager, Small Island Big Song

The Nuts and Bolts of Change: Enacting a Just Transition in Vermont.

From Conflict to Coexistence: Data-Driven Approaches to Human-Wildlife Interactions in Vermont

“Using GIS and Satellite Data to Study Climate, Environment and Social Determinants of Health” by Kevin Lane, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health, Interim Director of Environmental Health Doctoral Program, and Chief Data Officer – Center for Climate Health.

More information can be found on the English Department News and Events webpage

Dan Well’s presentation, Starting from a Single Tree: an Ecological and Cultural Perspective on Ancient Forests of the Pacific Coast And Beyond, will start at the base of Iluvatar, a nearly 1700-year-old Coast Redwood Tree, and gradually expand our view outward, exploring ecology, culture and their intersections. Modern ecology tells us in a new language what many traditions from Buddhism to Indigenous North American beliefs have long known—that the world is deeply interconnected and interdependent not only more complex than we know, but more complex than we CAN know.

“The Intersection of Disability and Climate Change” by David Liebmann ‘91, 2021 Sustainability Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Climate change is an existential threat. But for people living with a disability — an estimated 15% of the global population — the threat, compounded by discrimination, marginalization, and other pre-existing inequalities, is even greater. This colloquium will weave together personal and professional stories with a call to action that brings this challenge into focus.

“The Making of Environmental Law” by Richard Lazarus, Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

This talk, based on Richard Lazarus’s recent book “The Making of Environmental Law” recounts the emergence and evolution of modern environmental law and its future challenges.

The 2024 Scott A. Margolin ‘99 Lecture in Environmental Affairs presents Jade S. Sasser, Associate Professor in the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside.

“No Future for Us? Young People’s Climate Anxiety and the Future of Reproduction.”