Event Videos

Rice's Jim Blackburn, professor in the practice of environmental law in civil and environmental engineering, and Daniel Cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, participated in the final "Planet Now!" Conversation in Environmental Studies for the Spring 2021 semester. On April 28, 2021, they joined Richard Johnson, executive director for sustainability, co-director of the environmental studies minor, professor in the practice of environmental studies in sociology, and adjunct lecturer in civil and environmental engineering, and Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, for "What Now? Climate and Resilience in 2021," a conversation about environmental policy in the wake of a presidential election, rejoining the Paris agreement, the Texas grid collapse and much more.

Heather Houser, associate professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, and Alexis Shotwell, professor at Carleton University, discussed "Cultures and Media of Environmental Health" on April 14, 2021, as part of the "Planet Now!" Conversations in Environmental Studies. Joining the discussion from Rice were Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, and Clint Wilson III, PhD candidate in the Department of English and Diluvial Houston Predoctoral Fellow.

Leah Stokes, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Akhil Gupta, of the University of California, Los Angeles, joined the April 5, 2021 "Planet Now!" series conversation, "Futures of Electricity." Stokes is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at UCSB who is affiliated with the university's Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Department of Environmental Studies. Gupta is a professor of anthropology at UCLA. Rice participants were Richard Johnson, co-director of the environmental studies minor, director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management, professor in the practice of environmental studies and adjunct lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Dominic Boyer, professor of anthropology in the School of Social Sciences and a member of the faculty steering committee of the Center for Environmental Studies.

Jeff VanderMeer, an award-winning novelist and editor who has been called the “Weird Thoreau” by The New Yorker and who frequently speaks about issues related to climate change and storytelling, joined the March 15, 2021 "Planet Now!" Conversation in Environmental Studies. Rice participants included Cymene Howe, professor of anthropology and a member of the Center for Environmental Studies faculty steering committee; Richard Johnson, co-director of the Environmental Studies minor, director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management, and professor in the Practice of Environmental Studies and adjunct lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies.

Gisela Heffes, associate professor of Latin American literature and culture in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures, and a member of the Center for Environmental Studies faculty steering committee, joined a panel of scholars on Feb. 25, 2021 to discuss her recent book, “The Latin American Ecocultural Reader,” a collection of seminal Latin American pieces on the environment. Participants included Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies; Jennifer French, professor of Spanish, Williams College; Jorge Marcone, associate professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University; George Handley, professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities, Brigham Young University; Ursula Heise, the Marcia H. Howard Chair in Literary Studies, Department of English, and professor, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA; and Felipe Martínez-Pinzón, assistant professor of Hispanic Studies, Brown University.

Sophie Sapp Moore, the Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Humanities Research Center and the Center for Environmental Studies at Rice University, led a discussion, "Afro-Indigenous Intersections in Environmental Justice", as part of the center's "Planet Now!" Conversations in Environmental Studies. Participants in the Feb. 17, 2021 discussion included Michelle Murphy, a professor of history and women and gender studies at the University of Toronto; Beth Rose Middleton, professor and chair of Native American Studies at University of California Davis; and Malcom Ferdinand, an environmental engineer and political philosopher, and a researcher at the CNRS (IRISSO/University Paris Dauphine). The "Planet Now!" series is organized by the Center for Environmental Studies and the Environmental Studies curriculum, with support from the School of Humanities, the School of Architecture, the Humanities Research Center, the Mellon Foundation through the Diluvial Houston grant, and the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures.

Sophie Sapp Moore, a broadly trained political ecologist who will be joining Rice in January 2021 as a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Humanities Research Center and the Center for Environmental Studies, and Jacqueline Couti, the Laurence H. Favrot Associate Professor of French Studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures and associate director of Rice's Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, spoke on Nov. 16, 2020, in a conversation titled "Faculty Spotlight: Caribbean Ecologies." Rice's Gisela Heffes, associate professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures, and Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, moderated the conversation, the final event in the Fall 2020 "Planet Now! Conversations in Environmental Studies" series.

Jennifer French, professor of Spanish at Williams College, and Cajetan Iheka, associate professor of English at Yale University, shared their work and perspectives on Nov. 2, 2020, in "Ecologies of the Global South" as part of the "Planet Now! Conversations in Environmental Studies" series hosted by the Center for Environmental Studies and the Environmental Studies curriculum, with support from the School of Humanities, the School of Architecture, the Humanities Research Center, the Mellon Foundation through the Diluvial Houston grant, and the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures. Rice University's Gisela Heffes, associate professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies in the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures, and Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, moderated the conversation.

On Oct. 26, 2020, in a talk titled "Green New Deals," Daniel Cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and author of the forthcoming book “Unlocking Climate Gridlock”, and Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer and planner, professor in the practice of environmental law in civil and environmental engineering, co-director of the Severe Storm Prevention, Education and Evacuation from Disaster (SSPEED) Center, and director of the undergraduate minor in energy and water sustainability, discussed how environmental issues would factor into the 2020 election and what should be the environmental priorities at the federal, state and local levels of government. The conversation, part of the "Planet Now!" series, was hosted by the Center for Environmental Studies and the Environmental Studies curriculum, with support from the School of Humanities, the School of Architecture, the Humanities Research Center, the Mellon Foundation through the Diluvial Houston grant, and the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures. Rick Wilson, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Political Science and professor of Statistics and Psychology, and Richard Johnson, co-director of the environmental studies minor, director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management, Professor in the Practice of Environmental Studies, and adjunct lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering, moderated the conversation.

Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at University of Arizona, presented a talk titled "Sustainable Design, Resilient Cities: The Inequities of Urban Heat" as part of the "Planet Now! Conversations in Environmental Studies" series hosted by the Rice University Center for Environmental Studies and the Environmental Studies curriculum, with support from the School of Humanities, the School of Architecture, the Humanities Research Center, the Mellon Foundation through the Diluvial Houston grant, and the Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures. Richard Johnson, co-director of the Environmental Studies minor at Rice University, director of the Administrative Center for Sustainability and Energy Management, Professor in the Practice of Environmental Studies, and Adjunct Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Rives Taylor, Lecturer in the Rice University School of Architecture, moderated the Sept. 28, 2020 conversation.

Julie Sze, professor of American Studies and founding director of the Environmental Justice Project at the John Muir Institute for the Environment, University of California-Davis, and Joni Adamson, President’s Professor of Environmental Humanities and director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, helped to kick off the Planet Now! series of conversations about environmental dilemmas. Gisela Heffes, associate professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies in the Rice University Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures, and Joseph Campana, the Alan Dugald McKillop Professor of English and director of the Center for Environmental Studies, moderated the Sept. 14, 2020 conversation, "What Is Environmental Justice?"