Climate change is often viewed as a scientific challenge. But finding lasting solutions also requires understanding the histories, cultures and communities that shape our relationship with the planet.
Jill Didur, professor in Concordia's Department of English and co-director of the Speculative Life Research Cluster at the Milieux Institute, is leading a new international partnership that will unite researchers, museums, conservation organizations, policy leaders and community partners to rethink how societies respond to environmental change.
Jill Didur is leading ReSuRGEH, an international partnership that will explore new approaches to sustainability through the environmental humanities. | Photo by Ana Isabel Duque
The initiative, (Re)Thinking Sustainability: Research Network for Global Environmental Humanities (ReSuRGEH), has received a $2.5-million Partnership Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The award is one of only 17 Partnership Grants announced nationally and will support the collaboration over the next seven years.
Building new approaches to sustainability
Led by Concordia, ReSuRGEH brings together researchers from the humanities, social sciences and sciences with partners across Canada and around the world. Together, they will explore how histories of colonialism, extractive economies and social inequality continue to shape today's environmental challenges, while working with communities to develop more equitable and sustainable futures.
ReSuRGEH includes collaborations with universities, museums, botanical gardens, conservation organizations and policy groups in Canada, India, Barbados, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Through six international field intensives and a range of public-facing projects, researchers and community partners will co-create new approaches to sustainability rooted in local knowledge and lived experience.
The partnership's work will extend well beyond traditional academic research. Teams will organize six Open Air Sustainability Labs, bringing researchers together with local communities to explore how environmental change is experienced and addressed in different cultural and ecological contexts. The network will also convene biennial Alter/COP gatherings to develop alternative policy ideas alongside the United Nations climate negotiations, helping connect humanities research with international climate policy.
Museum exhibitions, digital storytelling projects, augmented reality experiences, performances and public events will help bring the research beyond academia, encouraging dialogue among researchers, policymakers and the public. Together, these initiatives will bridge the gap between sustainability science and the social and cultural dimensions of climate change, creating knowledge that can help inform policy and advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
"Climate change is not only an environmental challenge it is also a cultural, historical and social one," says Didur. "ReSuRGEH brings together researchers and communities with different ways of understanding the world so we can learn from one another. By working across disciplines and alongside local partners, we hope to develop more just, inclusive and imaginative approaches to sustainability."
Building the next generation of sustainability leaders
In addition to advancing research, the partnership will provide training opportunities for graduate students and emerging scholars through international field experiences, collaborative research, mentorship and engagement with community organizations. Concordia faculty co-investigators include Jesse Arseneault, Gage Diabo, Kregg Hetherington, Nalini Mohabir, Cynthia Quarrie, Angelique Willkie, and collaborators, Alice Jarry, Damon Matthews, V.K. Preston, and Miranda Smitheram.
The project will also support new forms of knowledge mobilization from policy papers and digital publications to public programming that ensure research reaches the people and organizations shaping environmental policy and practice.
"Concordia has built an international reputation for research that addresses complex global challenges through collaboration and innovation," says Tim Evans, Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Impact. "ReSuRGEH exemplifies that approach by bringing together researchers, cultural institutions and community partners to generate knowledge that will help shape more sustainable, resilient and equitable futures."
Learn more about the Milieux Institute's Speculative Life Research Cluster.
