DEI at the Nicholas School
diversity, equity, & inclusion
DEI at the Nicholas School

EJ Events and Resources

The Nicholas School is pleased to create, host, and advertise events that grow our understanding and practice of Environmental Justice, particularly in our local community. We are also dedicated to sharing EJ Resources with our community.

On this page…

Building in Justice Events
Upcoming EJ Events
Past EJ Events
EJ Resources
EJ Opportunities

Building in Justice Events

As part of the Building in Justice at the School of the Environment initiative funded through a generous grant from Duke Faculty Advancement, the Nicholas School will be hosting two opportunities this spring to learn about and engage with environmental justice. 

Elizabeth-Garza Shapiro via nicholas.duke.edu 1:48 PM (1 hour ago)
to NSOE, NSOE, Jessica, Sherri, D

It’s Not Just an Urban Issue: Challenges of Environmental Justice for Rural North Carolina – Friday, September 9
From Durham: 8:00am-6:30pm
From Beaufort: 7:00am-7:30pm

Nicholas School of the Environment faculty and staff are invited to join this all-day field trip to visit Sampson County, NC. Led by Sherri White-Williamson, Instructor at the Nicholas School, Director for Environmental Justice Policy at The North Carolina Conservation Network and Director of the Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN). The trip will provide opportunities to meet with and learn from community leaders in Sampson County about the root causes and direct impacts of the environmental injustices their community has experienced and the strategies they are employing to combat them. We will also be visiting a number of sites within Sampson County to view and discuss the direct manifestation of environmental injustice on the landscape. A to-go breakfast and an onsite lunch will be provided. Part of the Building in Justice at the School of the Environment initiative funded through a generous grant from Duke Faculty Advancement, the Nicholas School is offering this opportunity for our faculty and staff to learn about and engage with environmental justice. The primary purpose of the trip is to provide an opportunity to understand, in a holistic and experiential way, the impacts to people and places of environmental injustices. We also hope to build on the existing connections with these communities by Ms. White-Williamson to discuss, plan and develop additional collaborative efforts in research, teaching and engagement. 

Because of the nature of the funding for this trip, priority will be given to Nicholas School faculty and staff. Faculty and staff from other units at Duke hoping to participate should complete the registration survey and will be placed on a wait list.

Past Event: Field Trip
It’s Not Just an Urban Issue: Challenges of Environmental Justice for Indian Country

Occurred: Friday, May 13, 2022

From Durham: 8:00am-6:30pm

From Beaufort: 7:00am-7:30pm

Led by Dr. Ryan Emanuel, this all-day field trip will visit the traditional territory of the Lumbee people in Robeson County, NC. Members of the Nicholas School community will have opportunities to meet with and learn from members of the Lumbee Tribal Administration and other leaders in Robeson County about the root causes and direct impacts of the environmental injustices and the strategies they are employing to combat them. We will also be visiting a number of sites to view and discuss the direct manifestation of environmental injustice on the landscape. A to-go breakfast and an onsite lunch will be provided.

The primary purpose of the trip is to provide an opportunity to understand, in a holistic and experiential way, the impacts to people and places of environmental injustices. We also hope to build on the existing connections with these communities by Dr. Emanuel to discuss, plan and develop additional collaborative efforts in research, teaching and engagement.

Because of the nature of the funding for this trip, priority will be given to Nicholas School faculty and staff. Students and the faculty and staff from other units at Duke should complete the registration survey and will be placed on a waitlist. 

How did this event impact participants? Click here to learn more.

Flyer for Building in justice event
Past Event: Panel Presentation & Discussion
Ethical Considerations in Research with Communities Experiencing Environmental Injustice

Occurred: Tuesday, April 19, 2022 

Audiences joined us for a panel presentation and discussion of ethical considerations in conducting research with communities experiencing the impacts of environmental injustice. Featuring experts from both academia and communities, the session focussed on issues such as the need to understand and address previous negative experiences with research, the importance of valuing other ways of knowing, the benefits, and the costs, of truly partnering with marginalized communities in research processes and specific methods for developing clear expectations and acknowledging people’s contributions.

Looking for speaker bios and resources? Click here.

Upcoming EJ Events

Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities: The Application of Culturally-Responsive Soil Science to assess Environmental Health in Marginalized Communities

Dr. E. Britt Moore, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Date: Thursday, April 6th, 2023

Time: 12:00-1:15 pm

Integrating Intersectionality into the Exposome: New Directions in Environmental Justice

Ami Zota, ScD, MS, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Date: Thursday, March 9th, 2023

Time: 12:00-1:15 pm

Honduran filmmaker and environmental rights activist Katia Lara will give a free talk, “Environmental Justice: Defending the Environment Through Documentary Work,” at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, in LSRC A156, as part of our Leading the Change speaker series.  Katia’s most recent documentary, “Berta Soy Yo” (“I Am Berta”), tells the story of slain Central American social justice activist Berta Cáceres. You can attend a free screening of the film at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Mandela Auditorium.

Register to this event (cap at 50):

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrP1cViZy0qwxMwlIFCVE5q3_4qatfbAW5xgpFOGHmHvyfyw/viewform?usp=sf_link.

Rosa-Maria Ruiz, a protector of  the jungle. After years in pursue of a better life (a widow with children), shed arrived to what is today the Madidi National Park in the mid 1980s. Then, she saw firsthand how  logging and animal poaching were destroying its diversity and fauna.  She decided to travel from one community to the other convincing them they could create better lives for themselves by halting illegal activities and embracing sustainable tourism. If they could protect the area and its animals and create places to stay, she implored, then people would come from all over the world to discover the wonders of life in the jungle.

Madidi National Park opened in 1995: 4.7 million acres of pristine forest. In 2000, she was featured for her efforts in a large National Geographic article*. By 2001, Rosa had set up an eco-lodge with cabins in the park and was ready to receive her first guests who would explore guided trails that led through carefully prepared communities. But there was a problem….

Madidi is a national park in the upper Amazon river basin in Bolivia. Established in 1995, it has an area of 18,958km². Along with the nearby protected areas Manuripi-Heath, Apolobamba, and the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Madidi is part of one of the largest protected areas in the world.

Standing for Equal Justice
Thursday, September 22, 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sponsored by Duke Chapel and Sanford School of Public Policy

Environmental Justice in the Latinx Community
Thursday, September 29, 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Sponsored by DHRC@FHI

“Interested in climate justice? The Climate Justice & Global Intersectionality House Course is hosting a speaker series open to the Duke & Durham community. The speaker series will continue with a talk from Dr. Daniel Carrión, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Director of Education, Climate Change, and Health at Yale School of Public Health, at 7pm on September 22nd. He will be speaking about his research on “The Promise and Peril of Residential Energy Transitions: Intersections of Climate, Energy, and Environmental Justice”. You can view the speaker list and topics for events in the coming weeks on the event registration form. Register for this event or all events here.

If you have any questions, please contact Leah Roffman at leah.roffman@avi2duke-edu

Title: Casting Your Ballot for Environmental Justice

Subtitle: Discussing where protest fills gaps in electoral process

Date: September 8th at 5:00pm EST

This event brings together Social Justice and Civil Rights scholars and advocates to discuss the intersection of voting, civil disobedience, and environmental justice. As we come up on midterm elections in the U.S., this program highlights two things: the history and interconnectedness of voting rights and environmental justice in this country, and the ways in which movements have used other methods, such as protest, when the electoral processes have failed to promote equity and public wellbeing. Register HERE. 

————————————–

Interested in climate justice? The Climate Justice & Global Intersectionality House Course is hosting a speaker series open to the Duke & Durham community. The speaker series will kick off with a talk from Crystal Cavalier Keck, chair of the Environmental Justice Committee for the NAACP, on September 8th at 7:00pm EST. You can view the speaker list and topics for events in the coming weeks on the event registration form. Register for this event or all events here.

If you have any questions, please contact Leah Roffman at leah.roffman@duke.edu

————————————–

David Sheikh-Hamad, MD, Baylor College of Medicine, will present “Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu), mechanisms and therapeutic targets” on Friday, September 2, 12:00-1:15 pm Eastern.  Mesoamerican nephropathy is an epidemic of kidney failure affecting farm workers (predominantly male) in Central America. Similar disease (aka, CKDu) affects agricultural communities world-wide. Dr. Sheikh-Hamad’s team surveyed migrant workers with kidney failure at a Harris Health-based dialysis unit and discovered a link between exposure to agrochemicals (especially paraquat) and kidney failure. Weekly injections of sub-toxic doses of paraquat to mice for 15 weeks resulted in kidney failure – similar to Mesoamerican nephropathy. The study also examines kidney transporters for paraquat (OCT2 and MATE1), and finds a similar pattern in kidney biopsies of patients with Mesoamerican nephropathy.

View Dr. Sheikh-Hamad’s profile HERE.

This seminar will be presented in Field Auditorium (room 1112), Grainger Hall on the Duke University campus.

  • MASKS ARE REQUIRED to be worn by ALL audience members, regardless of vaccination status.
  • Light lunch will be provided following the seminar for in-person attendees who submit a lunch request HERE by noon on Monday, August 29.  Individuals who attend in person but do not submit a request by this deadline will not receive a lunch.

[CONFERENCE] Second National Conference (SNC) on Justice in Geoscience

————————————————–

August 14 – 17, 2022 

The Second National Conference: Justice in Geoscience engages intergenerational and convergent coalitions to broaden participation of Black, Native/Indigenous, and Latinx students and scholars in geosciences and related disciplines. The first conference on diversity in the geosciences occurred in 1972 and it is past time to hold another. The Second National Conference (SNC) will feature events and programming that span three themes:

  • Archival: Reading the past to create paths forward
  • Urgent: Justice for geoscientists of color
  • Imaginary: A radically different future

Participant application deadline is 27 April at 23:59 EDT/03:59 +0 GMT 

More info here and registration here.

EJ Opportunities

Bass Connections

Story+ Project | John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University

Courtesy Duke Forest Photo Collection

Unearthing Duke Forest

Paid six-week in-person summer research position for undergrad

The ecological history of Duke Forest is embedded within the human history of plantation agriculture, fueled by violent chattel slavery. Hallmark insights about river ecology, biodiversity, community succession, and climate change have come from research in Duke Forest, but what are the conditions that have allowed such research to take place? How does the historical context of the land and people on it affect knowledge production? What stake do researchers have in that history? 

Email Dr. Amanda Gould (amanda.gould@duke.edu ) ASAP if interested. More info here.

Photograph: Brian Christianson. Courtesy Marina Tsaplina and Orion Magazine.

Art as Relation and Repair across Disabled Ecologies and Histories 

Paid

The Art as Relation and Repair across Disabled Ecologies and Histories  Story+ project is looking for a graduate student to join the team. Story+ brings together a vibrant network of undergraduate researchers, graduate fellows, faculty project leads, local partners, and campus units to collaborate each summer on critical social issues. This six-week paid summer program combines hands-on interdisciplinary arts and humanities research with innovative storytelling to create dynamic outcomes for diverse public audiences. Story+ graduate project managers provide guidance, mentorship, and project leadership to their team.  

Applications reviewed immediately on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Please complete an application online and contact amanda.gould@duke.edu with any questions and/or to let us know you might be applying. 

Understanding Needs to Broaden Outside Use of NASA Data (UNBOUND) for Environmental Justice (EJ)

Credit: NASA Applied Sciences Program.

Fill out this Google form [was due Friday, April 15]

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to the workshop coordinator Regan Patterson at reganpattersonco@gmail.com  

3 workshops in April & May  

Organizations will receive a $2,500 stipend (half after the first workshop, the remainder after the final workshop) 

NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) is committed to supporting environmental justice communities by expanding awareness, accessibility, and use of Earth science data and enabling contributions to Earth science research and applications. When combined with socioeconomic data, NASA Earth observations can help assess disproportionate environmental impacts and aid in decision-making processes.

To inform this work, the Earth Science Data System (ESDS) Program has launched Understanding Needs to Broaden Outside Use of NASA Data (UNBOUND) for Environmental Justice (EJ). UNBOUND EJ is a multi-session workshop to identify how to make NASA data products more discoverable and suitable for analyses to address environmental justice in relation to disaster preparation, response, and recovery (i.e., flooding, power outages, extreme heat).

The workshop aims to engage data practitioners who are currently conducting analyses in the target disciplines but not currently using NASA data products – although these products might be applicable to their work. Participants in UNBOUND EJ will be asked to commit to three workshop sessions to be held in April and May. Your participation will provide valuable feedback on how NASA can make their data more accessible and actionable in the pursuit of environmental justice.

Past EJ Events

RECORDINGS OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE EVENTS NOW ONLINE
If you weren’t able to attend the “Celebrating 40 Years of Environmental Justice” events held at Duke In September 2022, you can now watch recordings of them. Our amazing student organizers have uploaded three of the panel discussions, “Casting Your Ballot for Environmental Justice,” “Recalling Warren County: Discussing the Birth of a Movement,” and “The Roots, Experiences, and Future of Environmental Justice,” as well as the series’ keynote presentation, “Environmental Justice: Past, Present and Future,” with Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. and Catherine Coleman Flowers. Recordings of other events will follow.

Local Environmental Justice Resources