Lecture Series

The Sustainability Council’s ongoing lecture series explores local and global perspectives on sustainability, equity and climate action. Hear researchers and practitioners from the University of Alberta and beyond in fields ranging from engineering to ecology, public health to poetry, native studies to nanotechnology.

The lecture series is delivered to you on a bi-weekly basis. We aim to highlight sustainability research, teaching and innovation over a range of topics with the goal of generating conversation on sustainability across disciplines. 

fall 2024 Lectures

The Energy Emergency Repair Kit

Performance | POSTPONED (new date to be determined)
4-104 Education Centre North

Speakers: Sourayan Mookerjea and Mark Simpson

The Energy Emergency Repair Kit (E.E.R.K.) is a collaboratively-authored provocation to explore myriad ecological, cultural, and political resonances of the three concepts named in its title: energy; emergency; repair. The E.E.R.K. combines image, text, and sound to riff on the idea of a repair manual—that staple genre of self-help and self-making—while exploring energy emergency and energy emergence in several entangled registers. Prompted by the urgency of climate change, the hot air of CCS, and the malignity of business-as-usual, racial-fossil capitalism, E.E.R.K. brings together theory and poetics in a novel mode of research-creation so as to provoke and inspire critical inquiry and creative imagining about what could come next. If energy emergencies loom everywhere, what possibilities for care and repair might they ignite?

The topic of this performance aligns with SDG 10, 13, 14, 15, 16.

Climate Cafe and Lip Balm Making Workshop

Event | October 21, 2024, 3-4:30 p.m.
SAB 1-36 

Speakers: Sustainable Development Goals Students' Alliance

Want to make your own FREE lip balm from natural and sustainable materials while engaging in conversation about climate anxiety? Join the Sustainable Development Goals Student Alliance (SDGSA) for a dynamic conversation in a non-judgmental space about taking action for the SDGs as well as future initiatives and opportunities. We will be making lip balm together from natural oils and beeswax. All materials and snacks will be provided for free.

Global Citizens not Global Robbers: In Classrooms, Internships, Travel, and Beyond

Workshop | November 20, 2024, 12-1 p.m.
SAB 1-36 

Speaker: Wajed El-Halabi, Global Citizenship Education Lead

Given the ever-changing terminologies and concepts surrounding Global Citizenship, it is important to revisit its current state once again. Join us for an interactive session where we will discuss Global Citizenship, its definition and application in various fields, and how it is being realized both nationally and within Alberta. Most importantly, we will work together to understand how we, as students and professionals, can strive to ensure that we are, in fact, embodying a global citizen and not a global robber.