Leaders: Becky Mansfield, Maria Miriti
Scope
Rather than being universal, environmental knowledge and action builds on culturally specific perspectives founded in Europe and developed and extended around the world through the violence of colonialism. Questions about race and social-environmental knowledge and practice are at the heart of sustainability, with its multidimensional emphasis on coupled human-natural systems and orientation toward human and planetary health and well-being. To develop practical projects of sustainability in Columbus and/or central Ohio that address racial and socioenvironmental inequality and injustice, we seek to develop an interdisciplinary group addressed to community-engaged sustainability practice and pedagogy. Seeking to remedy racial disparities and improve socio-environmental knowledge, this effort will develop general pedagogical approaches and specific pedagogical tools that can help diversify environmental knowledge in both senses: recruit and retain minoritized people in environmental fields and expand the scope of foundational knowledge about nature and human-nature relationships.