By Eva Rachert — News Editor

The English department’s Dr. Shoshannah Bryn Jones-Square recently hosted a guest lecture in her course ENG 118: Literature of the Environment. The guest speaker was Dr. Cara Judea Aldaheff, a climate activist and former professor of performance and pedagogy at UC Santa Cruz, who has written several books on climate justice and interdisciplinary activism. She discussed coping with the anxieties of living in a climate crisis and the importance of remaining hopeful and reducing personal consumption.

The talk, which was held over a video call, opened with Dr. Aldaheff introducing herself and guiding the class through an icebreaker question. She asked students to identify and call out contradictory points of view: pro-choice believers opposing anti-abortion, mandated vaccines as a challenge to informed consent, GMOs to solve food insecurity against precarious social reform. She then led the class through a meditation in which they were asked to place a hand on their heart and a hand on their stomach, and to identify the physical responses they had to each of the binaries as she read them out. This would go on to become a central talking point of Dr. Aldaheff’s discussion: defining the difference between personal and social lived experiences. 

“I’m asking you to explore personal-political space,” Dr. Aldaheff said, encouraging students to be vulnerable in their explorations of intersectional activism. She spoke on the importance of having a community to rely on when working in activism, and how people can define themselves away from social norms. She told listeners to take “satisfaction in the fact that we’re alive,” and concluded that vulnerability and social equality were key in successful intersectional activism. 

She then hosted a question period, in which she answered questions that the students had drafted before the talk, as well as questions that students had after hearing her speak. She spoke about her experiences reducing her consumption by buying primarily used products and designing an energy-conscious home by renovating a school bus. She told students interested in reducing their own consumption to ask themselves, “Do I need this? Is it a desire? Is it a constructive desire?” when shopping.

Dr. Aldaheff’s talk provided a positive perspective on the future of climate justice, a topic that can often seem intimidating and depressing to those reckoning with it. She spoke on the divide between realism and hope, and, when asked about her choice to be a mother in the face of the climate crisis, said of pregnancy “the process of transformation was politicizing.” 

Engagement with climate justice on campus has taken a variety of forms — clubs, administration, students, and staff have been involved in discussions and initiatives for eco-consciousness. Dr. Aldaheff’s talk was hopeful about the future and realistic in terms of actions that students could take — reducing their personal consumption, being aware of those around them — without burning themselves out. Fostering a community that supports activism is started with conversations like these.