CANCELED: Intersecting Energy Cultures, Participatory Research, and Just Transitions with Dr. Rebecca Macklin and Dr. Bethany Wiggin, Working Wednesdays

This Working Wednesday session has been canceled due to illness and will be rescheduled.

Intersecting Energy Cultures, Participatory Research, and Just Transitions

Intersecting Energy Cultures (IEC) is a newly-launched initiative that responds to the urgent need to incorporate community-driven solutions in the just transition away from fossil fuels. Communities directly impacted by energy industries face a complex range of issues, ranging from job instability and health concerns, to territory loss and dispossession. Yet, their perspectives remain inadequately represented in academic and policy arenas. Bringing together researchers partnering with communities in energy sites around the world, and responding to the specific concerns of energy regimes such as nuclear, oil, wind, and coal, the Intersecting Energy Cultures working group seeks to explore how arts and humanistic methods of enquiry can be used to better understand local experiences of energy, and translate community needs into policy. In this presentation, Wiggin and Macklin invite dialogue and feedback as they discuss their rationale for launching Intersecting Energy Cultures and their goals for the future of the working group.

Rebecca Macklin is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and was previously a PPEH Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research specialises in Indigenous and postcolonial literatures, with a particular emphasis on cultural engagements with gender, extraction, and environmental justice. She has a particular interest in how arts and humanities methodologies can be employed in environmental research to better support local community needs.

Bethany Wiggin is the Founding Director of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, Professor of German and member of the Graduate Groups in Comparative Literature and English at the University of Pennsylvania. She regularly leads public research projects designed to connect academic and community expertise for environmental action. These projects include: An Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene, Data Refuge, Futures Beyond Refining, and My Climate Story.

PPEH offers a lunch series, Working Wednesdays, designed to showcase in-progress Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) straddling theoretical and practical environmental concerns. These sessions take place on Wednesdays, 12:30-1:30 sharp.

All sessions are open to the Penn community but require RSVP. Grab a lunch and join us in person or on Zoom!