Dr. Di Chiro is Professor of Environmental Studies at Swarthmore College.  She researches the intersections of environmental science and policy, with a focus on social and economic disparities and human rights.

4:00 pm | 210 ASB

Abstract  –  Drawing on my own involvement in campus-community collaboratives in Philadelphia, I discuss practices of engaged scholarship that blend commitments to environmental justice and sustainability. Such practices underscore the social inequalities and colonial legacies that lie at the root of environmental problems and, as such, aim to prevent the “unintended” consequences of “unmindful” sustainability solutions, such as green gentrification. I argue for an intersectional, decolonial approach to environmental problem solving in order to confront the “crisis of imagination” that hinders our capacities to create genuine soul-utions to social and environmental crises.

Bio  –  Giovanna Di Chiro is Professor of Environmental Studies at Swarthmore College.  She has published widely on the intersections of environmental science and policy and human rights, with a focus on gender, race, sexuality, and economic disparities. Di Chiro’s research, teaching, and activism focus on community-driven approaches to sustainability and the intersections of social justice and environmental change.