Humber Liberal Arts Academic Conference 2022
In March 1912, an article in Popular Mechanics focused on the remarkable weather of 1911, citing extreme heat across North America and Europe and unprecedented melting of ice in the Arctic. The conclusion? Human-created climate change based largely on an over reliance on coal energy. More than a century later and fundamentally, little has change, with some scientists claiming that we’ve already entered into the sixth mass extinction.
Over the past century, globalization has led to an interconnectedness and an awareness of the shared effects of climate change, yet hesitancy and outright denialism surrounding climate change have slowed progress, and have also worked to diminish or distract from notions of social responsibility. Societal responsibility has been transferred away from the corporate or systemic to the individual, where action may be simpler, but impact is negligible. Additionally, despite a rise in awareness of environmental racism and the fact that the most impacted by climate change are those with the least control, frontline action has been left, in many places around the world, to Indigenous land defenders who face increasing violence from the state and ambivalence from the media.
The eighth annual Humber@TIFA conference seeks to explore the social challenges faced by the climate crisis, the impacts of climate change denialism, environmental racism, representations of the climate crisis in media and the arts, individual vs. corporate responsibility, and the need for equitable solutions.
Tune in to sessions, free and open to the public, September 23–24. Learn more about the virtual events below.
All times are in ET.
This panel focuses on the urgent need to rethink global or international experiential learning programs in response to the climate crisis. Canadian university campuses are quickly returning to pre-Covid “normal,” and international programming is again in high demand among students. The research presented in this panel explores a wide range of the responsibilities for institutions and individuals within Canadian higher education at a time of climate crisis.
This event is free to watch with registration. Please return to this page on September 24 at 3pm ET to view the event.
Specific stories from various front lines of the climate crisis are explored in this panel. This includes an analysis of how art can offer a critique of the environmental racism faced by the Sámi in Sápmi, specifically looking at how art created through the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can go beyond a visual representation of the climate crisis to engage in meaningful debate on the urgency of our climate responsibility. There will also be a presentation on research that engages politically active youth in Mi’kma’ki that sought to identify connections between political activism and climate grief. Finally, the differing views on sustainable architecture will be examined, with a specific analysis of the role of the architect and the choice of sustainable logic become central to the design process of sustainable architecture, with a specific focus on the development of Danish social housing.
Duration: 90 minutes
This event is free to watch with registration. Please return to this page on September 24 at 1pm ET to view the event.
This panel will explore various ways in which educational approaches and disciplines are, or should, be responding to the climate crisis. Discussion will move from looking at specific disciplines, including teaching about the need to create sustainable fashion and exploring a framework for teaching Climate Change Education, to broader approaches around how hope and resilience-based education can help to overcome the increasing prevalence of eco-anxiety.
Duration: 90 minutes
This event is free to watch with registration. Please return to this page on September 24 at 11am ET to view the event.
This panel explores the stories being told in response to the climate crisis, including analysis of eco-weird stories manifesting the fear and anxieties of climate change. While the discussion will be wide ranging, it will grapple with questions about whether or not Eco-SF predicts the future or models potential scenarios and how water scarcity could be the driving force of our dystopic future. The discussion will be built around close readings of texts including All Quiet in Vikaspuri, a graphic novel by Sarnath Banarjee, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, and the filmography of globally acclaimed, Academy Award winning director Bong Joon-Ho.
Duration: 90 minutes
This event is free to watch with registration. Please return to this page on September 24 at 9am ET to view the event.
Nikki Sanchez is a Pipil and Irish/Scottish academic, land defender, media maker, environmental spokesperson, and decolonization expert. Her work can be found broadly, including on the VICELAND series RISE and in her TEDx talk “Decolonization is for Everyone.” She is also an activist, author and educator, as well as the founder and director of Decolonize Together.
Duration: 90 minutes
This event is free to watch with registration. Please return to this page on September 23 at 5:30pm ET to view the event.