PUBLIC LECTURE:
"OTHER FACES: LATINX AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE"

Dr. Figueroa is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion. He has over two decades of promoting environmental justice pedagogy as it has emerged from Environmental Humanities. His current transdisciplinary research focuses on Latinx communities in the USA, indigenous populations in the joint-management of National Parks and environmental heritage, refugee populations in terms of environmental and climate refugees, along with conditions in refugee camps and relocated communities. He draws upon environmental identity, environmental heritage, cultural continuance, and restorative empathetic relationships.

Among other issues, Dr. Figueroa’s talk will focus on environmental justice issues related to the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility in California, the efforts by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Movement, the Ganados del Valle workers’ collective Tierra Wools, Adelante Mujeres successes in restorative justice and sustainable agriculture, environmental colonialism in Puerto Rico, and the Mothers of East LA in their successful opposition to construction projects in their community—a prison, an incinerator, and waste treatment plant—as environmentally unsafe and unjust.

With the generous support of the Green Fund, the Center for Environmental Resource Management, and the Center for Inter-American Border Studies