8th Annual Kent State Environmental Science & Design Research Symposium

This year's theme: Environmental Justice, Ecology, and Race.

View the two-day symposium's highlight reel

View the Poster Session winners and Abstract Catalog

Thursday and Friday, April 13 and 14, 2023.  

Free to all. 

Description:

The 2023 ESDRI Symposium theme, 'Environmental Justice, Ecology, and Race', will call attention to issues concerning structural inequality; disparity and natural processes; climate justice; environmental conflicts and activism; and equitable environmental design. The convergence of the global pandemic, accelerating climate crisis, and social justice movements have re-exposed the breadth of environmental inequalities and the inextricable link between disparity and ecological harm. Addressing issues in our complex, contemporary environment requires expanded conversations that confront latent systems of inequity and support more just social, natural and built systems. Indeed, recent governmental initiatives prioritizing the climate crisis and disadvantaged communities¹ understands that “environmental justice is an important part of the struggle”² in the obligation to improve and maintain clean and healthful environments. In 2021, the United Nations affirmed that a clean and healthy environment is a fundamental human right.

^{1   United States White House Briefing Room. 2022. “Fact Sheet: A Year Advancing Environmental Justice”, 1/26/2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/26/fact-sheet-a-year-advancing-environmental-justice/
2   Skelton, Renee and Vernice Miller. 2016. "The Environmental Justice Movement", 3/17/2016, Natural Resources Defense Council.  https://www.nrdc.org/stories/environmental-justice-movement}
 

Location:

Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center
215 South Depeyster Street, Kent, OH. 44240