SEA Change Gallery

Please join us at SEA Change for a conference reception from 7:00-9:00 on Friday, May 21.

SEA Change Co-curator Katherine Ball will also be speaking on a panel on Arts, Ecology, and Civic Engagement at 10:45am in room 110.

Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities. A National Conference

The conference is free and open to the public.

We hear talk of “sustainability” everywhere—sometimes as an ecological vision, an advertising strategy, a countercultural dream or even a business model. Given the diverse uses of “sustainability,” how might those of us who invoke it most effectively address our ecological, economic, and social challenges? This conference is an invitation to construct bridges across the diverse terrains of sustainability theory and practice, engaging in productive dialogue and debate that might lead to innovative green frameworks for environmental scholarship, activism, research, and policy.

• To these ends, the Second Annual International Conference on “Understanding Sustainability” seeks to encourage innovative dialogues between diverse groups that are not always in conversation.
• Humanities scholars working in fields such as ecocriticism, green cultural studies, environmental ethics, philosophy of science, and environmental history
• Social scientists working in the areas of social sustainability, environmental justice, environmental economics, sustainable business practices
• Local designers, city planners, and social service providers who are building Portland’s reputation as a leader in sustainability, and
• Artists and activists shaping ideas of green ethics and aesthetics or new strategies of political participation

This national conference follows upon the inaugural conference from last year, and will bring over sixty scholars from across diverse disciplines and backgrounds to Portland to draw out the controversies over the meaning and practice of sustainability.

www.understandingsustainability.org.