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Events at Smith A Collaborative Design-a-Thon October 25, 2020 What motivates you? It�s time to co-design a better and more just post-COVID-19 world. A Collaborative Design-a-thon is a 36-hour virtual weekend event dedicated to tackling today�s wicked challenges. Fourteen teams of two or more Smithies will be accepted on a first come, first registered basis. Bring at least one friend, or more. And if you are looking for a teammate, don�t worry - indicate that in the registration form and we can match you up with another curious, creative soul. Register at the link below! More... Virtual via zoom 11:30 am Concentrations Information Session October 26, 2020 Interested in exploring the ways a concentration might open doors to new ways of thinking and being in the world? We'll provide a brief overview of the common features and shared goals of Concentrations at Smith, say a few words about resources available to support the work of concentrators, and then we'll break into focused info sessions with the directors, key support staff, and students from the Archives, Book Studies, Community Engagement and Social Change, Environmental, Global Financial Institutions, Museums, Poetry, and Translation Studies Concentrations. Register to receive the Zoom link. More... Virtual via Zoom 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm Food Policy Initiatives at the State Level with Jo Comerford October 26, 2020 Jo Comerford, Massachusetts State Senator for the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester districts, will discuss food policy initiatives at the state level. What's happening? What's working, what isn't? Part of the ENX 100 lecture series. More... Virtual via zoom 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm To Understand a Tree, a work-in-process presentation October 27, 2020 What is the community of a tree? What will happen if I, as a woodworker, place myself in a deeper relationship to the forest? Arts Afield Visiting Artist Gina Siepel discusses her ongoing work, To Understand a Tree, currently in process in the forests of the Macleish Field Station. To Understand a Tree is inspired by a desire to contemplate a living forest tree and its immediate habitat from the perspective of a woodworker, directly engaging both the forest ecosystem and the furniture making process. In collaboration with naturalist Kate Wellspring and others, Siepel is studying a single northern red oak tree, integrating artistic and scientific methodologies. Forests are complex, interconnected systems, and in that spirit, To Understand a Tree connects furniture and object making to questions of forest ecology, climate change, and the ethical harvesting of plants and other natural resources. Please register at the link! More... Virtual via zoom 7:00 pm Presentation of the ES&P major and minors October 28, 2020 Interested in the environment and sustainability? Find out more about what it takes to major or minor in environmental science and policy or minor in marine science and policy. Meet faculty, staff, and students in the program, and get your questions answered! More... Virtual via Zoom 12:30 pm to 1:20 pm Events Off Campus Dartmouth Energy Collaborative Seminar Series with Leah Stokes October 27, 2020 Leah Stokes of UC Santa Barbara will give a talk titled, "Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States," as part of the DEC Energy Seminar Series. In 1999, Texas passed a landmark clean energy law, beginning a groundswell of new policies that promised to make the US a world leader in renewable energy. However, that policy did not lead to momentum in Texas, which failed to implement its solar laws or clean up its electricity system. Examining clean energy laws in Texas, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio over a thirty-year time frame, Stokes argues that organized combat between advocate and opponent interest groups is central to explaining why states are not on track to address the climate crisis. More than a history of renewable energy policy in modern America, Short Circuiting Policy offers a bold new argument about how the policy process works, and why seeming victories can turn into losses when the opposition has enough resources to roll back laws. Leah Stokes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and affiliated with the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). More... Online Event 12:15 pm Virtual Info Session: Columbia University�s graduate programs in applied sustainability studies October 29, 2020 The MPA in Environmental Science and Policy, the Master of Science in Sustainability Management, and the Master of Science in Sustainability Science programs provide students with the practical knowledge and training to become leaders in this rapidly growing area. To learn more about our cutting-edge programs, please register in Handshake. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Have questions or having trouble registering? Contact Kate Trzaskos, Assistant Director, Employer Relations in the Lazarus Center for Career Development. ktrzaskos at smith.edu Virtual via Zoom 12:00 pm The American Garden - A life or Death Situation October 29, 2020 with Neil Diboll, President, Prairie Nursery. Part of the Zube Lecture Series hosted by Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass, Amherst. Join using the link below: More... Zoom 4:00 pm		Events at Smith Write and Speak and Stand Up: A Reading + Q&A with Zenaida Peterson November 5, 2020 Spoken-word poet Zenaida Peterson combines art, activism, identity, and justice in their work. Join the Jandon Center for Community Engagement and the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College for a poetry reading and conversation with this remarkable person. �I am afraid of the ways that I have to stay silent/ how the black community erases me/ how the queer community invalidates me/ and I defend them all anyway/ march for them all anyway� Register using the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 7:00 pm Events Off Campus Lecture and Conversation with Farshid Moussavi, Principal Farshid Moussavi Architecture November 4, 2020 Part of the Zube Lecture Series hosted by Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass, Amherst. This event is also co-sponsored by the Architecture department. Register for this event using the link below: More... Zoom 4:00 pm Food for Thought: Race, Place, and Change in the Food System November 4, 2020 An interactive dialogue with racial justice and food systems activist Liz Wills-O'Gilvie on efforts to increase healthy food access and social awareness in the communities of Greater Springfield and beyond. Liz serves as the director of the Springfield Food Policy Council, the board chair of the youth driven, urban agriculture organization, Gardening the Community. She is also a member of the Steering Committee and Advisory Boards of the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative and Mass Farm to School. A critical thinker about issues relating to race, class, gender, culture and privilege, Liz is quite comfortable with the discomfort attached to conversations about race. Register using the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm What if Nature Had a Seat at the Table? November 5, 2020 The 2020s are a critical decade of urgent action to arrest the worst impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and in which to build resilience to changes as we cross planetary boundaries and tipping points. COVID-19 has shown us what happens when we ignore scientific evidence of the risks of our encroaching on nature. 75 years after the founding of the UN the governance of our international systems is outmoded, with institutions, organizations and mechanisms dominated by a few powers, many of whom have demonstrated, at best, benign neglect in recent years. These mechanisms have struggled to value planetary health and our wellbeing and to integrate that in economic, social and political decision making. As the UN celebrates an important milestone, amid unprecedented challenges to multilateral cooperation, can we imagine how we may give nature a seat at the table and what would change if its voice, needs and contributions could be heard. Rachel Kyte is the 14th dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Prior to joining Fletcher, Kyte served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). She previously was the World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change, leading the Bank Group's efforts to shift its operations and campaign for the Paris Agreement. Register for the event using the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 12:00 pm Construction of Nature in New York City: Governance, Discourse, and Materiality November 5, 2020 with Lindsay K. Campbell, Research Social Scientist, USDA Forest Service. Part of the Zube Lecture Series hosted by Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass, Amherst. Join using the link below: More... Zoom 4:00 pm Building Political Will for Climate Solutions Workshop November 7, 2020 Learn how to build political will for climate solutions using Citizens' Climate Lobby's five levers: lobbying congress, grasstops engagement, media relations, grassroots outreach, and group development. Led by CCL regional fellows, this workshop will help participants figure out how to use your time and talents to take concrete, meaningful action on climate change. This webinar is intended for students and anyone in higher ed. Please RSVP through Eventbrite (below) to obtain the Zoom meeting information in your confirmation email. More... Virtual via Zoom 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm		Events at Smith Sustainable Solutions for the Climate Crisis and Its Cascading Impacts to Humanity November 9, 2020 Jana Ganion, will discuss her work as Sustainability and Government Affairs Director for Blue Lake Rancheria, a federally recognized tribe in California. She will give examples of how the community has created solutions around mega-wildfires and other climate impacts; these include implementing decarbonization policies and programs, and building sustainability community infrastructure. This is part of the ENX 100 lecture series. More... Virtual via zoom 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm How to Take Action & Stay Hopeful in an Age of Climate Crisis: November 12, 2020 A Conversation with International Smith Alums. Nearly every day brings news of devastating environmental challenges - from increasingly violent storms to plastics in our oceans to the production and unequal distribution of toxic wastes. In a world stretched thin for resources under threat of global climate change and the pandemic health crisis, how can we stay engaged, motivated and hopeful to enact real change? Use the link below to register and join us for a conversation with four alumni living in Africa and Europe who are working in the Climate/Sustainability/Environmental Protection fields. They will discuss their work and share specific actions they are taking to keep motivated and enact change in these challenging times. The conversation will be moderated by Professor Leslie King, Chair of Smith's Environmental Science and Policy Program, with time for questions. More... Virtual via Zoom 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm Pacific Eco-Poetry. Online Reading by Craig Santos Perez November 12, 2020 Craig Santos Perez, an indigenous Pacific Islander from Guam, is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Habitat Threshold. He will share his poetry, focused on climate change, environmental justice, human-animal relations, and the anthropocene. This reading is in conjunction with the Kahn Institute 2020-21 yearlong project Imagining Climate Change: From Slow Violence to Fast Hope. Open to the public. More... Virtual via Zoom 5:00 pm The Activists Post-election Playbook November 12, 2020 with Kerene Tayloe, Director of Legislative Affairs for WeACT for Environmental Justice and Raquel Ortega '11, NoCAL ACLU Organizer. Register using the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 7:00 pm NOAA summer internship presentations November 13, 2020 Join us to hear from three Smithies who spent their summer in virtual internships with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and find out how you might intern with NOAA in summer 2021! Today's presentations include Ciara Chen, '21: Status of Caribbean Corals Listed under the Endangered Species Act; Dominique Kelly, '22: Why do some dolphins and whales form mixed-species associations? An unresolved puzzle in community ecology; and Phoebe Lease, '21: Communicating the Science and Technology Missions of Exploration. Use your Smith email to join us at the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 12:30 pm Events Off Campus Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age: Insights fromThe Optimist's Telescope November 12, 2020 "If no one else seems to care about the future, why should I?" Many people today are disillusioned, even cynical, about what lies on the road ahead, and about humanity's capacity to thrive over the long term. In her 2019 book The Optimist's Telescope, Bina Venkataraman argues we can build a society of long-term thinkers, harnessing research, anecdotes, and case studies drawn from her background in public policy, climate change strategy, and journalism. In this talk, she will dispel myths about human shortsightedness and impart the lessons for thinking ahead even when the future is murkier than ever. Bina Venkataraman is an American journalist, author, and policy expert. She is currently the Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe and a fellow at New America. Since 2011, she has taught in the program on science, technology, and society at MIT. She is the author of The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age (Riverhead, 2019), named a top business book by The Financial Times and a best book of the year by Amazon, Science Friday, and National Public Radio. Bina formerly served as Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation in the Obama White House, where she forged partnerships among communities, companies, and government to prepare for climate disasters and to declassify data useful for global development. Register for the event using the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 12:00 pm Finding the Past: Documenting and Restoring the Palace at Pernstejn, Czech Republic November 12, 2020 with Ina Truxova, Landscape Architect, National Heritage Institute, Czech Republic.Part of the Zube Lecture Series hosted by Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at UMass, Amherst. Join using the link below: More... Zoom 4:00 pm Racism & Health Disparities November 12, 2020 Dr. Evelynn Hammonds will talk about racial disparities in the age of coronavirus and how scientists developed categories of racial difference that shaped the practice of medicine, public health policy and the field of epidemiology. Dr.Hammonds, the Barbara Guttmann Rosenkrantz Professor of History of Science at Hampshire College, has written extensively about these topics. Her excellent book, Childhood�s Deadly Scourge: The Campaign to Control Diphtheria in New York City, 1880-1930, chronicles the first contentious struggle to apply bacteriology and immunology to the treatment of diphtheria. All are welcome, from A to Z: artists to zoologists! Join using the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 4:05 pm to 5:30 pm Environmental Policy in Historical Perspective November 12, 2020 Panel Discussion with Bill McKibben, Robert Pollin, Ashwin Ravikumar, Thea Riofrancos & Eve Vogel. We have only a few years left to make deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. This event will reflect on the implications of the U.S. election results for meeting this imperative. What are the prospects for a Green New Deal and other urgently needed measures, in the United States and beyond? How can the destructive power of the fossil fuel industries be neutralized? The panelists will analyze the current moment while also offering a historical perspective on environmental policy and movements.Part of the 2020-21 Feinberg Series, Planet on a Precipice: Histories and Futures of the Environmental Emergency presented by the UMass Amherst History Department. Use the link below to register or for more information: More... Virtual via Zoom, FaceBook or YouTube. 6:00 pm Webinar: How to Get a Job in Sustainability Purpose-Driven Careers in Business, NGOs, and Government November 12, 2020 The Covid recession has made finding work more challenging. But it has also opened new opportunities for driving social and environmental progress. Dr. Eban Goodstein, Director of Graduate Programs in Sustainability at Bard College, will outline mission-focused career strategies for both soon-to-be and recent college graduates, and for professionals looking to make a move. Goodstein will provide participants with a concrete job-search strategy, discuss what the current political climate means for careers in social and environmental sustainability, and also field questions in a live, interactive webinar. Register at the link below: More... Virtual via Zoom 6:30 pm Water Cooler Chat: Exploration of Modern Indigenous Knowledge and the Power of Indigenous Western S November 13, 2020 Celebrate Native American Heritage month with James Rattling Leaf Sr, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, University of Colorado Boulder and Robert Newman, University of North Dakota from ESA�s Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section as we explore: What is Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)? How does the power of indigenous knowledge contribute to Western science? What insights can TEK provide into the way we teach our students to connect with the world? Bring your favorite beverage and join us for an inspiring Water Cooler Chat. Register below: More... Virtual via Zoom 4:00 pm