The Upstate Institute will host an interactive event on the art and science of environmental storytelling in the wake of climate change. “Narrating Change” will be held on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at 4:30 pm in the O’Connor Campus Center (The Coop) TV Room. The interactive, participatory event will explore the implications of climate change for all of us with the help of different types of storytellers—from the arts, theater, biology and ecology, anthropology. Panelists will help participants explore the stories and experiences of our community in a changing climate, and think through the power of these stories to motivate empathy and action in that community.
Participants of “Narrating Change” will include Eve Mosher, an artist whose work includes High Water Line events produced in collaboration with members of the local community (more information at http://evemosher.com); Doug Frank, a biologist at Syracuse University, whose research includes a climate change garden, used to track alterations to the local flora through time (more information at http://biology.syr.edu/faculty/frank/frank_research1.htm); members of the Farmscape Ecology Program, in Columbia County, NY, which focuses on enabling people to explore the intersections between agricultural and ecological landscapes (Conrad Vispo, wildlife ecology; Claudia Knab-Vispo, botany; Anna Duhon, social anthropology; more information at http://farmscapeecology.org/); and Jeremy Pickard, from the Superhero Clubhouse, a Brooklyn-based theatre collective which works with scientists to help dramatize environmental stories ( more information athttp://www.superheroclubhouse.org/).
“Narrating Change” is organized by Dr. Wyatt Galusky, Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair for Regional Studies at Colgate University. Dr. Galusky has a Ph. D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech, and degrees in philosophy from the University of North Texas and Texas A&M University. His teaching specialties include science, technology and society, and environmental studies; and his research interests center on animals in agriculture and public engagement with science and technology. His publication list includes several articles and reviews, some of which have appeared in places such as Engineers, Scientists, and Environmental Justice: Expert Cultures in a Grassroots Movement; Science as Culture; Science, Technology and Human Values; and Environmental Ethics. He is Associate Professor of Humanities at Morrisville State College.
Established in 2006 by Stephen Burke ’80 and Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81, the Endowed Chair for Regional Studies was created to support and recognize outstanding scholars whose research interests focus on upstate New York.