This week will discuss Julia Sterling’s recent research in political economy that explores civil society perspectives on lessons learned from Canada’s COVID-19 response towards urgent climate action. She will share her recent findings as they relate to: social supports in crisis, crisis communication, political polarization and a reorientation of values. At the end of the session, Julia will guide us through the Imaginative Futures brainstorming exercise she used in her research to imagine what a pandemic-level climate action plan could look like in Canada. She asks, what have you learned from what we have been shown is possible?
Speaker: Julia Sterling achieved a Bachelors of Global and International Studies with a specialization in Globalization and the Environment in 2021 from Carleton University. She recently graduated from the Master’s of Arts program with the institute of political economy at Carleton University in September. Her thesis compares the rapid COVID-19 mobilization efforts to the delayed climate action response in Canada to analyze civil society perspectives about critical lessons learned and potential pathways forward. Julia is passionate about climate justice, alternative knowledge mobilization, and the radical imagination. She is curious about effectively creating spaces for deliberate constructive dialogue in a increasingly digital and polarized world.
Actions
- As a reader, passionately engage in the works you read and practice critically thinking.
- Flex your imagination muscles, imagine what your ideal day to day life would be like. What are some little steps you can do to make your ideal?
- Enacting change that people will notice and be grateful for.
- After you read/consume something, try to discuss it with a friend or family member to reflect on what you’ve learned and pass on information.
- Think of ways alternative knowledge mobilization.
- Use your radical imagination.
- Critically consider what cross crisis interventions could look like.
Resource List
The following is a list of resources recommended by attendees at our event.
Julia Sterling’s Thesis:
101067357 Sterling_J 2.pdfOther Texts on Imaginative Futures:
- Anahid Nersessian. “Utopia’s afterlife in the Anthropocene.” The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities. 2017.
- Rebecca Solnit. Not too Late. 2023.
- Grace Dillon. Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction. 2012.
- Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown. Octavia’s Brood. 2015.
- adrienne maree brown. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. 2017.
- Mathais Thaler. No Other Planet: Utopian Visions for a Climate-Changed World. 2022.