Diana Liverman to Deliver 2018 Pardee Center Distinguished Lecture

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future is pleased to announce its annual Distinguished Lecture, “A Complex Dilemma: The Intersections of Poverty, Gender, Ethnicity, and Race in Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation” featuring Diana Liverman, Regents Professor of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona. Prof. Liverman is a leading expert on the human dimensions of global environmental change and the impacts of climate on society. The lecture will take place on Friday, April 6 from 3:00 – 4:30 pm (reception to follow) on the 1st floor of the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE) at 610 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston.

Is there evidence that adaptation efforts are actually reducing climate vulnerability? Can pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to eliminate poverty and hunger (SDGs 1 and 2) or to achieve gender equality (SGD 5) also help reduce climate risks and vulnerability? Can we find synergies that will provide multiple benefits for the most climate vulnerable places and groups? Prof. Liverman will explore these questions and more, as she evaluates what we know about social vulnerabilities to climate change, especially the intersecting roles of poverty, globalization, gender, and race, and provides a critical assessment of methods such as interviews, vulnerability indices, and mapping.

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Diana Liverman is Regents Professor of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona. Her research interests focus on climate and development, especially on climate vulnerability and adaptation, climate governance, and the challenges of sustainable development within planetary boundaries. She has received awards for her contributions to understanding the human dimensions of global environmental change including a Royal Geographical Society medal, Distinguished Scholarship honors from the Association of American Geographers and a Guggenheim fellowship. She has served on national and international advisory committees on the human dimensions of global change, climate, food security, and earth governance. A tireless advocate for the importance of the social sciences and humanities in understanding and reducing the risks of climate change she is a committed teacher and mentor, supervising more than 70 graduate students over her academic career. She is currently a lead author for the IPCC Special Report on keeping global warming below 1.5°C and a review editor for the international chapter of the US National Climate Assessment.