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This year, given the growing interest in our department and amongst PPI students in climate justice, we are hosting a hands-on workshop to discuss how philosophers could play a uniquely important role in motivating the political will to advance climate justice efforts.

This past year, the director of PPI, Michaila Peters, had the opportunity to travel to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan and meet with rural and indigenous climate activists. In these discussions, it became clear that having other perspectives on climate justice in the room, be they from indigenous traditions, feminists in the Global South, or otherwise, is not necessarily enough to instigate a paradigm shift in the stakeholders who need to invest in climate solutions. In order for the content of their wisdom to be taken seriously, these representatives need to employ careful, pedagogical strategies that can disrupt capitalist-colonialist-epistemologies. We believe, after these discussions, that the art of teaching philosophy, wherein ideally, we get students to shift from one paradigm to another and back, and critically evaluate comparative perspectives, offers useful insights to this problem. Indeed, philosophers may be helpful beyond theorizing about the environment, by reflecting on the practical skills of communication we develop in the classroom, and how they may be integrated into climate activism on the streets or in formal negotiations like the UN. 

In this three part workshop, we hope to explore this possibility with graduate students and a mix of speakers who are climate activists, climate theorists, and negotiators who each have a unique perspective on what barriers they have faced to generating genuine investment in climate justice.

Program for Second Workshop (breakfast provided)

Meica Danielle Magnani, Assistant Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University, will talk about the best practices she has developed for altering student paradigms of sustainability and their relationship to the environment through land-based teaching in sacred forests in the Pacific Northwest and other field trips.

Sign up here!

This year, given the growing interest in our department and amongst PPI students in climate justice, we are hosting a hands-on workshop to discuss how philosophers could play a uniquely important role in motivating the political will to advance climate justice efforts.

This past year, the director of PPI, Michaila Peters, had the opportunity to travel to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan and meet with rural and indigenous climate activists. In these discussions, it became clear that having other perspectives on climate justice in the room, be they from indigenous traditions, feminists in the Global South, or otherwise, is not necessarily enough to instigate a paradigm shift in the stakeholders who need to invest in climate solutions. In order for the content of their wisdom to be taken seriously, these representatives need to employ careful, pedagogical strategies that can disrupt capitalist-colonialist-epistemologies. We believe, after these discussions, that the art of teaching philosophy, wherein ideally, we get students to shift from one paradigm to another and back, and critically evaluate comparative perspectives, offers useful insights to this problem. Indeed, philosophers may be helpful beyond theorizing about the environment, by reflecting on the practical skills of communication we develop in the classroom, and how they may be integrated into climate activism on the streets or in formal negotiations like the UN. 

In this three part workshop, we hope to explore this possibility with graduate students and a mix of speakers who are climate activists, climate theorists, and negotiators who each have a unique perspective on what barriers they have faced to generating genuine investment in climate justice.

Program for First Workshop (lunch provided)

11:30-12PM: Opening Remarks, Michaila Peters, Founder and Director of PPI and BC Delegate to COP29

12-1PM: Conversation with the Wisdom Keepers Delegation, global delegation of Indigenous knowledge holders and Earth protectors, spanning continents and borders, who are active in climate justice negotiations in spaces like the UN COP meetings. We will learn about their work, and challenges they’ve faced in elevating indigenous knowledges in climate negotiations, and what they think the role of philosophical pedagogy could be in helping folks radically alter their thinking to indigenous paradigms to generate the political will to support climate justice.

3-5PM and Dayana Blanco, the Co-founder of the Uru Uru Team of the Global Landscapes forum. Likewise, Danya will discuss the barriers she’s faced in getting uptake for indigenous knowledges in climate justice organizing, and what role she thinks philosophers might play in that struggle.

Be sure to join the mailing list to stay in the loop! See Michaila with any questions, or email at petersxg@bc.edu