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DEG Seminar - In person

Date / Time: Tuesday 14th November at 12:05

Location: Hybrid (ENV005 and Zoom) - click here to join

Speaker name:Olivia Mason

Title: Resource politics and colonial entanglements in Jordan’s nature reserves

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Blurb

Olivia Mason is a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at Northumbria University. Her research sits at the interface of cultural, environmental, and political geography, and explores mobility politics and resource colonialism with a focus on the Middle East.

Her seminar today focuses on the consequences of a series of expeditions in the 1960s to Jordan led by UK-based ornithologists, conservationists, and biologists with the aim of establishing nature reserves. This talk begins by tracing these histories and the international trends and policies surrounding nature conservation in this time. Yet, alongside these international trends, Jordan’s nature reserves were also created in a period of (post)colonial nationalist politics and concerns over resource scarcity. In present day Jordan, these global/local relations, increasing resource scarcity, and ongoing legacies of colonialism continue to shape nature conservation. This includes the ways in which local communities are removed from these sites and their local knowledge dismissed. Nature reserves in Jordan thus demonstrate the colonial intimacies of environmentalism, how resource tensions become connected with national identity, and how communities are impacted by conservation. 

Click here to watch the recording of the previous DEG Seminarentitled 'From peatlands research to peatland restoration.’

Passcode: y&nj5sFn

Sustainability Education Conversation

Date / Time: Wednesday 15th November at 12:05

Location: Zoom - click here to join

Speaker: Dr Smriti Safaya

Title: What can I learn here, that I can learn nowhere else?

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Blurb

The title of Smriti's talk is an adaptation from a profound question posed by Robert MacFarlane in "The Old Ways", his serpentine story about journeys and place-consciousness. Though it was posed by a travel writer a decade ago, it is THE enduring question educators can use to stimulate meaningful enquiry that sticks. Using examples from her time working with students and running professional development workshops for educators, Smriti will share some simple approaches to place-based and experiential learning that can be adapted across disciplines. She will also reveal a newly-launched community initiative to engage with biodiversity (on and off-campus), and invite opportunities for staff and student collaboration and action for sustainability.

Please note that next week’s Sustainability Seminar on 22nd November will take place IN PERSON in ENV/005. Very excitingly there will also be a chance to sign up for one-on-one meetings with the speaker, Beth Eden. Details to follow next week 🙂

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