»Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Environmental Justice

• Apr. 2022
  Lecture Series: A Fireside Chat with Intersectional Environmentalist Leah Thomas
  Alumna Leah Thomas '17, the founder of eco-lifestyle blog @greengirlleah and The Intersectional Environmentalist Platform, which advocates for environmental justice and inclusivity within environmental education and movements discussed her latest book, The Intersectional Environmentalist, which aims to educate the next generation of activists on creating meaningful, inclusive and sustainable change. 
• Apr. 2022
  Book Club: Intersectional Environmentalist
  A discussion of the book Intersectional Environmentalist with author and Chapman Alumna Lean Thomos '17.
• Dec. 2021
  Lecture Series: Dec. Environmental Injustice Case Studies Conference 2021
  Organized by Professors Jan Osborn and Stephanie Takaragawa. Featuring students in FFC 100D.03 The Anthropocene: Humans and the Environment. The conference focused on specific cases of environmental injustice, exploring how the case reflects the intersection of environmentalism and social justice.
• Dec. 2021
  Lecture Series: Godzilla and the Imagination of Anxiety, from Hiroshima to COVID-19, 2021
  Special Guests: Scholar Bill Tsutsui, Alexander Bay (moderator) and Jeff Koerber (moderator) - Professor Bill Tsutsui is an award-winning scholar and teacher, an experienced academic leader, and an outspoken supporter of the public human-ities, international education, and more inclusive, accessible colleges and universities. He re-searches, writes, and speaks widely on Japanese economic and environmental history, Japanese popular culture (especially the Godzilla movies), Japanese-American identity, and issues in higher education. He is highly opinionated about BBQ, proud to have once driven the Zamboni at an NHL game, and slightly embarrassed to be Level 40 in Pokemon Go.
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• Nov. 2021
  Film Series: Snowpiercer
  Seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a perpetually-moving train that circles the globe, where class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out.
• Nov. 2021
  Panel Discussion:Environmental Justice: Making a Difference
  Special Guests: Faculty and Students working on research of environmental issues
  A panel discussion with Chapman University faculty discussing their research in the areas of environmental health and environmental justice. Dr. Matthew Ballew – Assistant Professor of Psychology, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences Dr. Jason Douglas – Assistant Professor of Public Health, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences Dr. Richelle Tanner – Assistant Professor of Environmental Science & Policy, Schmid College of Science and Technology; Wilkinson College
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• Nov. 2021
  Lecture Series:Environmental Justice: Engaging the Law
  This event is featured a roundtable on legal aspects of environmental justice. In Environmental Justice: Engaging the Law, experts in environmental justice, including law faculty and practitioners will discussed their work which ranges from pioneering an EJ comic book to specialized work in Flint, California, and United States.
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• Nov. 2021
  Lecture Series:Legacies of Chernobyl and Fukushima
  Special Guests: Dr. Kate Brown and Dr. Aya Kimura
  Dr. Kate Brown and Dr. Aya Kimura will be discussing the historical reasons for the Chernobyl and the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear disasters as well as the ongoing struggles of people living in highly irradiated areas. The discussants will also field questions from the students and from the larger Chapman audience.
• Nov. 2021
  Lecture Series: Bensussen Distinguished Lecture in the Arts
  Special Guest: Artist Jill Heinerth
  More people have walked on the moon than have visited many of the places that Jill Heinerth has seen on Earth. From the most dangerous technical dives deep inside underwater caves, to searching for never-before-seen ecosystems inside giant Ant-arctic icebergs, Heinerth’s curiosity and passion about our watery planet is the driving force in her life. In her visually stunning presentations, Heinerth encourages audiences to reach beyond their limitations, challenge the unknown, and overcome their fears, while applying her practical experience to share lessons on risk management, discovery learning, failure, and collaboration strategies.
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• Nov. 2021
  Book Club: Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver
  Open discussion of Jill Heinerth's book.
  Jill Heinerth published her first book, Into the Planet, in 2019. It has been lauded by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah Magazine, and the New York Times. She is also a presenter on several radio and TV broadcasts worldwide.
• Oct. 2021
  Lecture Series: Prayers for Flint: Artist Talk with Karen Hampton
  Special Guests: Artist Karen Hampton and Fiona Shen (moderator)As an artist of color, I have made a life long commitment to creating artwork that responds to the lives of my ancestors. My lens is anthropology and I study my own genealogy. I travel in my ancestors footsteps, I walk the roads where they lived, explored the plantations where they were enslaved, I am the storyteller. As their medium I provide a vehicle for my ancestor’s spirits to transcend history and remain as historical memory. My medium is cloth -- whether digitally printed, hand woven or aged linens -- pieces are imbued with the hopes and visions of African American lives, telling their stories from a maternal perspective.” – Karen Hampton
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• Oct. 2021
  Film Series: Fractured Land. Discussion Facilitator: Julie Shafer 
  With some of the world’s largest fracking operations on his territory, Caleb Behn, a young indigenous leader and lawyer in British Columbia, struggles to reconcile the teachings of his Dene tribe with the Canadian law intended to protect his ancestral land. His dynamic presence and his ability to straddle these two worlds set him apart as a torchbearer in a worldwide movement of resistance, but the pressures of leadership reveal deep fractures in Behn’s identity, and in the life of the communities he represents.
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• Oct. 2021
  Lecture Series: Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (by Todd Miller) Special Guests: Author Todd Miller and Brian Glaser (moderator). In Storming the Wall, Todd Miller travels around the world to connect the dots between climate ravaged communities, the corporations cashing in on border militarization, and emerging movements for sustainability and environmental justice. Reporting from the flashpoints of climate clashes, and from likely sites of futures battles, Miller chronicles a growing system of militarized divisions between the rich and the poor, the environ-mentally secure and the environmentally exposed. Kirkus Reviews called it “A galvanizing forecast of global warming’s endgame and a powerful indictment of America’s current stance.”
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• Oct. 2021
  Lecture Series: The Agent Orange Curse: Lingering Legacies for Vietnamese and American Innocents with special guest, Dr. Larry Berman (PhD, Princeton University), Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and former Founding Dean of the Honors College at Georgia State University. He has written extensively on the war in Vietnam. His books include Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt, Jr. (2012), Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter & Vietnamese Communist Agent (2007), No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger and Betrayal in Vietnam (2001), Lyndon Johnson War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam (1989) and Planning A Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam, (1982). Berman is currently researching and writing his next book, A Slow Walk with Death: The Lingering Legacy of Agent Orange.
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• Sept. 2021
  Lecture Series: Robert D. Bullard is often described as the father of environmental justice. He is the former Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University 2011-2016. Professor Bullard currently is Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy. Prior to coming to TSU he was founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University. He is an award-winning author of eighteen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, industrial facility siting, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, climate justice, disasters, emergency response, and community resilience, smart growth, and regional equity. He is co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium. Dr. Bullard is a proud U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
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• Sept. 2021
  Lecture Series: Bringing the Fight for Environmental Justice to Orange County with special guests, Patricia Flores and Kayla Asato - Formed in 2016, Orange County Environmental Justice Educational Fund (OCEJ) is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environmental justice organization. We are developing grassroots leadership and advancing an environmental justice agenda within the ancestral homelands of the Acjachemen and Tongva Nations, now known as Orange County, California. Our mission is to fight for environmental justice by mobilizing and empowering marginalized community members.
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• Sept. 2021
  Film Series: District 15 - Communities for a Better Environment does critical work on environmental justice and empowers Californian communities to stand up to polluting industries and build a green energy future. This short film highlights the hope and tenacity of the young activists of Wilmington, California as they push the Los Angeles City Council to prohibit new and existing oil and gas drilling operations within 2,500 feet of homes, schools and hospitals.Discussion Facilitators: Jan Osborn and Stephanie Takaragawa
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• August 20, 2021
  Film Series: A Fierce Green Fire is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, spanning 50 years of activism. Chronicling the largest movement of the 20th century, the film tells vivid stories about people fighting – and succeeding – against the odds, from the Grand Canyon to Love Canal, from the oceans to the Amazon. A film by Academy Award-nominee Mark Kitchell and inspired by the book of the same name. Discussion Facilitators: Stephanie Takaragawa and Jan Osborn
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• Film Series: Shelter in Place is a renowned London-based photographer and film director whose work has been published and exhibited internationally. Having gained recognition and major awards as a documentary photographer working in some of the most troubled areas of the world, Nelson has increasingly turned his focus on Western society, adopting an increasingly conceptual approach to reflect on contemporary social issues. Nelson’s work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, the ICA and the National Portrait Gallery, and is in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Nelson has had solo shows in London, Stockholm and New York. Previous awards include the Visa d’Or, France; First Prize in World Press Photo Competition; and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, USA.
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• April 2021
  Film Series: Plastic China
  Plastic China explores global consumption and culture through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse. This documentary captures the lives of two families living in a small town dedicated to processing plastic waste at a recycling facility, whose hopes and dreams are for a better life. At what price do these families pay physically and psychologically to aspire towards wealth while completely overlooking their quality of life? What burdens do other countries place on developing nations when they export the detritus of their consumer lifestyles?
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• March 2021
  Film Series: Deep Down Film
  Beverly May and Terry Ratliff grew up like kin on opposite sides of a mountain ridge in eastern Kentucky. Now in their fifties, the two find themselves in the midst of a debate dividing their community and the world: who controls, consumes, and benefits from our planet’s shrinking supply of natural resources?
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Co-Directors:

• Ashley Kranjac, Assistant Professor of Sociology
• Stephanie Takaragawa, Associate Professor of Sociology

Committee:

• Deepa Badrinarayana, Professor, Fowler School of Law
• Jessica Bocinski, Registrar of Escalette Permanent Collection of Art
• Mackenzie Crigger, Sustainability Manager and Professor of Environmental Science
• Brian Glaser, Associate Professor of English
• Jason Keller, Director for Environmental Science & Policy and Professor of Biological Sciences
• Prexy (Rozell W.) Nesbitt, Presidential Fellow in Peace Studies
• Julie Shafer, Associate Professor of Photography
• David Shafie, Associate Professor of Political Science
• Fiona Shen, Director of Escalette Permanent Collection of Art
• Mary Shockey, Events and Development Coordinator

Special thanks to ETW Staff:

• Jessica Bocinski
• Eric Chimenti and the Ideation Lab
• Sarah Gordon
• Mary Shockey
• Laura Silva

We also appreciate our partnerships with the following areas of campus, who made more events possible:

• Environmental Science and Policy and Schmid College
• Escalette Collection Dr. Fiona Shen and Jessica Bocinski
• Fish Interfaith Center
• Fowler School of Law and Dr. Deepa Badrinarayana
• Guggenheim Gallery and Marcus Herse
• Strategic Marketing and Communication
• Student Community Support and Development, Associate Director, Justin Riley
• The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and Dr. Marilyn Harran

Off Campus Partners:

• Orange Public Library
• Planet Forward at GW