Environmental Justice for Environmental Science 

Environmental scientists sometimes think about our research as informing efforts to promote environmental justice (i.e., “environmental science for environmental justice”). This framing can be true, and it often yields impactful science, but we can also benefit from flipping our perspective to consider how the concepts and principles of environmental justice can sharpen our work as scientists (i.e., “environmental justice for environmental science”). In this seminar, I unpack the idea that scientific research can be informed, strengthened, and even transformed through meaningful integration of environmental justice principles and practices. I bring these ideas to life using examples from long-term partnerships with Indigenous communities in North Carolina aimed at understanding the impacts of industrial livestock production, fossil fuel infrastructure, and climate change to wetlands and other culturally significant environments. I close by reflecting on how the principles of environmental justice inform my own thinking about the people to whom I am accountable as a scholar – and how this idea of accountability led me to write a book about Indigenous environmental justice in North Carolina. 

Hosted By: Dr. Alecia Septer