“The Resistance to Reason: An Enduring Problem”

March 12, 2 pm.

We are surrounded by those who refuse to accept what science tells us. Yet in many ways, the question remains to be answered: how are we to think of these people? How do we to get them to listen? Can we? McGillicuddy Humanities Center Fellow Ivy Flessen will be presenting her research related to these questions. Her talk will center around ±Ê±ô²¹³Ù´Ç’s Myth of Er to answer these questions, and illuminate the irrationality, hatred, and anger that seems to overwhelm our political society. Free and open to the public.

Email mhc@maine.edu with any questions.

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Women often are on the front lines of climate change impacts, yet are uniquely poised to reshape our institutions towards resilience and gender equity. Women are increasingly in leadership roles, innovating sustainable approaches to scarcity, and building community around local solutions.

Join us on select Thursdays at 2 p.m. throughout the semester to hear perspectives from women working to reshape their discipline and community with innovative media, decolonization strategies, renewable energy programs, and activism. Organized by Dr. Katie Glover from the Climate Change Institute, and the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, through a McGillicuddy Humanities Center faculty grant. Part of the MHC’s 2020-2021 symposium on “The Story of Climate Change.” Free and open to the public with registration.Ìý

Register once and you’ll be sent a confirmation and link to join all five events in the series.

FEBRUARY 18: Ecofeminism in the Urban Landscape

Dylan O’Hara, PhD student, Dept. of History, University of Maine

O’Hara’s research focuses on urban development in the mid twentieth century United States and leftist activist movements. Her lecture on “Ecofeminism and the Urban Landscape” will focus on the social and political power dynamics of urban renewal in the 1960s.

MARCH 4: Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Dr. Bonnie Newsom, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Maine

Newsom is an Indigenous archaeologist interested in the pre-contact lifeways of Maine’s Native peoples. Through her research, she seeks to humanize people in the past by exploring concepts of identity, style, social boundaries, and human agency. This talk will focus on Indigenous ways of knowing as it relates to climate change.

MARCH 18: Indigenous science is activism

Sara Tenamoeata Kahanamoku, PhD student, Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley

Kahanamoku isÌýaÌýKanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) andÌýMaÊ»ohi (Tahitian) scientist from HaleÊ»iwa, OÊ»ahu, HawaiÊ»i. Like many others in their family, Sara was raised in the ocean, and it is this relationship that drives their scholarship and activism. Kahanamoku is currently a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley (Huichin Ohlone), with a research focus on the impacts of the climate crisis on California’s ocean ecosystems during the 19th and 20th centuries. Kahanamoku’s applied work focuses on the pono (equitable, relational) co-production of climate-related research and policy.Ìý

MARCH 25: Podcasts as Method

Dr. Kelsey Emard, Dept. of Geography, Oregon State University

EmardÌýis a human-environment geographer and member of the Instructional Faculty in Geography at Oregon State University. Her current research examines shifting agricultural land uses and livelihoods driven by amenity development in rural areas, plant health/disease, and climate change. She is interested in creative feminist methods involving podcasting to analyze and understand often overlooked visceral data.Ìý

APRIL 8: Local Solutions to Climate Crises

Youth activists Ruby Mahoney and Ayano Ishimura, A Climate to Thrive on Mount Desert Island

Mahoney is a junior at Mount Desert Island High School and a prominent member of their ECO Team. Eager to make the world around her a better place, she’s worked with various local and national political and environmental justice organizations, including Sunrise Movement and A Climate To Thrive. She volunteered for the re-election campaign of junior senator and co-writer of the Green New Deal, Ed Markey-MA) in 2020 and plans to continue working as an organizer and activist.Ìý

Ayano Ishimura is a passionate and active environmental advocate and visual artist. She is currently a Senior at Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor Maine and is the Co-President of her school’s ECO Team. She has worked on a variety of projects such as declaring a Climate Emergency in her town and expanding solar energy statewide, to strive towards climate justice in Maine. She takes inspiration from nature and fellow youth members to find creative and collaborative solutions to the climate crisis.

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Figuring out new and creative ways to communicate the reality of climate change remains one of the great challenges facing policy-makers, scientists, and advocates.Ìý This event brings together two artists with expertise in creating powerful images and visuals about climate science with a veteran science writer and editor to discuss how art can communicate directly and emotionally, and can engage the public, in ways that move beyond the scientific findings and data.

Join the McGillicuddy Humanities Center on Wednesday, March 10, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. to explore this topic further.Ìý Email mhc@maine.edu to join, or register at: .

ModeratorÌýLaura Helmuth, Ph.D. is Editor-in-Chief ofÌýScientific American.ÌýShe is a science journalist with more than 20 years of experience covering all fields of health, science, technology, and the environment. Prior to joiningÌýScientific American,Ìýshe was the Science and Health Editor forÌýThe Washington PostÌýand has held positions atÌýNational Geographic,ÌýSlate,ÌýSmithsonian, andÌýScience. Helmuth was the President of the National Association of Science Writers from 2016 to 2018 and board member from 2012 to 2016.

PanelistÌýJill PeltoÌýis aÌýclimateÌýscientist and artist based in Westbrook, Maine.ÌýHer work focuses on communicating human-environment connections. By incorporating scientific research and data into watercolor paintings, she weaves visual narratives that reveal the benefits and costs of human impacts on this planet.ÌýShe’s conductedÌýfield research around the world, including the mountain glaciers of Washington and the Transantarctic Mountains. She recently created a custom data-artÌýpainting for the cover of TIME Magazine in July 2020. Her biography and a gallery of her work can be found atÌý.

Panelist Deirdre MurphyÌýdecodes the interconnected patterns that exist inÌýartÌýand science through the lens of biological patterns and data visualization. Her research has led to artist residencies at Integral Molecular Biotech and Winterthur Museum. Her paintings, prints and public art have exhibited at the Philadelphia International Airport, Palm Springs Museum of Art, Zillman Art Museum, Biggs Museum of American Art, New Bedford Art Museum, and Tacoma Art Museum. Her biography and a gallery of her work can be found atÌý.

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