Climates of Inequality and the COVID Crisis: Building Leadership at Minority Serving Institutions Fellowship
The second cohort of the Humanities Action Lab’s Climates of Inequality and the COVID Crisis: Building Leadership at Minority Serving Institutions fellowship has started for the 2022-23 AY. Centering the needs and narratives of frontline communities, faculty and community partners engage in course and project collaboration about environmental justice, resulting in a co-created public humanities media piece on history and current experiences of environmental justice in their locality, for inclusion in the Climates of Inequality website and traveling exhibition.
Climates of Inequality and the COVID Crisis: Building Leadership at Minority Serving Institutions is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Cohort AY22-23
Las Cruces, New Mexico
The project “Water is Life” will address the environmental justice issue of the finite supply of pure water in the desert along the New Mexico/Arizona, New Mexico/Texas, and US/Mexico borders. Partners will use video and a podcast to address the challenges of living in the desert.
Federico Almarez
Doña Ana Community College
Armando Arellano
Learning Action Buffet
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Michelle Valverde
Learning Action Buffet
Lamaia Vaughn
Doña Ana Community College
Merced, California
This project is a collaboration that integrates education, practice, and advocacy for agroecology in the San Joaquin Valley. The collaboration will use agroecology as a vehicle for resiliency and regeneration. Partners will develop a podcast called The Voices of Sustainable Agriculture: Agroecology in the San Joaquin Valley.
Carlos Gomez
Central Valley Agroecology Program Planning Committee
Kassandra Hishida
Central Valley Agroecology Program Planning Committee
Brenda Mora Gutierrez
Central Valley Agroecology Program Planning Committee
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Rebecca Ryals
University of California Merced
Newark, New Jersey
The Newark Water Coalition and a faculty filmmaker will co-create a media-making experience for students and Newark community members to receive training in and conduct community-based storytelling, and create public media around Newark environmental justice issues. The goal is to collect footage and stories for a short documentary.
Anthony Diaz
Newark Water Coalition
Fernanda Faya
Filmmaker and Cinematographer
Northridge California
Using environmental justice training, students will help lead after-school activities and train community members in environmental justice and sustainability. A part of this collaboration will lead to the development of a curriculum around mutual aid and environmental justice and a bilingual training manual.
Samantha Ayon
University of California Northridge
Rosa RiVera Furumoto
Parent Pioneers/Padres Pioneros
Stevie Ruiz
University of California Northridge
San Marcos, California
This project will explore the history and current environmental justice experience for Southern California tribal communities, adapting a food sovereignty toolkit to be used by tribal communities across the region. Related courses will engage students and communities in promoting food sovereignty through expanding on food sovereignty work with the Pomo tribe.
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Nicole Lim
California Indian Museum and Cultural Center
Joely Proudfit
University of California San Marcos
Kristall Vega
California Indian Museum and Cultural Center
Cohort AY21-22
Chicago, Illinois
Building on previous engagement, the partners collected stories and recipes from community members to tease out connections between food traditions & cultural identity with food & land justice, im/migration, labor, health & COVID-19, and environmental/climate justice. Students in the course created digital media to highlight the stories of community members.
Rosa Cabrera
University of Illinois at Chicago
Ximena Leyte Escalante
Alianza Americas
Wilmarie Medina-Cortes
University of Illinois at Chicago
Edith Tovar
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
Raleigh, North Carolina
Faculty used local history and stories from community leaders in their curriculum to emphasize the ties between past and present responses to environmental racism. Interviews with community members were the foundation of an environmental justice newsletter that focused on the history of Wilmington, North Carolina and Wayne County, North Carolina.
Kwinn Doran
Shaw University
Valerie Johnson
Shaw University
Naeema Muhammed
North Carolina Environmental Justice Network
Zaid Steele
Shaw University
Riverside, California
Students in Riverside developed a series of interactive components related to environmental justice in Southern California that became part of an interactive timeline on the Inland Empire. Students and community partners built a relationship on mutual trust and co-creation to identify areas of concern in the community.
Alicia Aguayo
People's Collective for Environmental Justice
Megan Asaka
University of California Riverside
Rocio Gomez
University of California Riverside
Cathy Gudis
University of California Riverside
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Our Puerto Rico partners created an oral history collection that is also part of a disaster archive in response to local issues exacerbated by Hurricane Maria. Students used oral histories and established partnerships with local community organizations to create a zine titled Eating through Disaster: Food Insecurity in Puerto Rico.
Ricia Chansky
University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
Bryan Ramos Romero
University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
Yaritza Sánchez Silva
University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
