Community-Engaged Research and the Climate Crisis

A symposium hosted by SFU Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) and the UBC Centre for Climate Justice

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

Climate crisis is already unfolding across BC: heat domes, wildfires, and floods have had devastating impacts on communities throughout the province, both urban and rural. These impacts – like other social and environmental injustices – are unevenly distributed, often exacerbating existing harms to Indigenous peoples, communities of colour, and the underhoused or socially vulnerable.

Community-engaged research offers powerful methods for understanding these impacts, increasing the capacity of under-resourced communities to plan for and live through them, and amplifying the stories and visions of change coming from those living through the climate crisis. But there is a tension between the pace and scale of community-engaged research – which requires that relationships be built with care, patience, and close attention to context – and the urgency of the global climate crisis. How then can we do community-engaged research at the speed of the climate emergency? What role can community-engaged research play in creating change that is both globally impactful and sensitive to local realities?

This symposium brings together community organizers, movement and youth leaders, media makers/storytellers, researchers, and other practitioners of climate justice to share practices, stories, and lessons to collectively strengthen our ability to advance climate justice. The one-day event will foster discussion and connection among initiatives centred on three themes:

1. Collaborative research and climate responses that advance Indigenous sovereignty;
2. Storytelling for community resilience and policy change; and
3. Youth-driven research and engagement for climate justice. 

NOTE: This event will be held in-person only therefore please only register if you are able to attend in-person at 312 Main in Vancouver on October 20th.

J.T. Sandu (aka Ruby Diamond)

Megaphone Magazine

Peter Thompson

Megaphone Magazine

Zafar Adeel

Executive Director, Pacific Water Research Centre

Professor of Professional Practice, School of Sustainable Energy Engineering (SFU)

Summer Tyance

RELAW Communications Coordinator, West Coast Environmental Law

Sean Holman

Director - Climate Disaster Project

Steph Kwetásel'wet Wood

Journalist - The Narwhal

Aldyn Chwelos

Senior Research Associate – Climate Disaster Project

Grace Nosek

lawyer, climate storyteller, and founder of the UBC Climate Hub

Michelle Xie

Climate Resilience Lead, UBC Climate Hub and Student Representative from Climate Justice Research Collaborative