Emerging Scholars Speak at BUSSW Social Work, Climate & Environmental Justice Event
As part of its strategic goal to address climate and environmental justice through social work and champion the work of scholars who are underrepresented in academia, BU School of Social Work (BUSSW) hosted the Emerging Scholars Colloquium in Social Work, Climate & Environmental Justice. Moderated by Daniel Jacobson López, an assistant professor at BUSSW, the event featured three emerging scholars conducting cutting-edge research on climate and environmental justice: Darien Alexander Williams, OreOluwa Badaki and Shanondora Billiot.
The first speaker, Shanandora Billiot, PhD, an assistant professor at Arizona State University and member of the United Houma Nation, discussed her research project exploring resilience, culture, climate and movement among an Indigenous community on the Gulf Coast and how building community-based adaptation activities can help address environmental changes impacting Indigenous populations. Columbia postdoctoral fellow OreOluwa Badaki, PhD, a trained dancer who shared African Lamban dance movements with the audience, discussed her research on literacy practices among young people of color working in urban agriculture and how creative, critical, and collaborative literacy activities can impact teaching and methodologies used within environmental justice education. And Darien Alexander Williams, a PhD candidate at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, presented a compelling case on how climate impacts the incarcerated population and ways that abolitionist organizing can address and improve carceral infrastructure.
The speakers engaged with the in-person and Zoom audience in a Q&A session led by Prof. Jacobson López following their presentations. The event was part of two days of programming designed to connect the early-career scholars with the BU community.
Watch the Recording:
Photo Gallery:
Photo Credit: Dave Green Photography / Boston University School of Social Work
An initiative of the Equity & Inclusion Committee, the BUSSW Emerging Scholars Program is funded by BU Diversity and Inclusion and co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health at BUSSW and the BU School of Public Health’s Center for Climate and Health and Department of Environmental Health. The program is co-chaired by BUSSW faculty members Daniel Jacobson López, Dawn Belkin Martinez and Ellen DeVoe, and supported by program coordinators Greer Hamilton (PhD’23) and Ashley Shen (MSW’23).
Learn more about the BUSSW Emerging Scholars Program here.