These are among the questions asked by Carolyn Finney, geographer and assistant professor in the Department of Environment Science at UC Berkeley, who recently spoke at UC Davis about the relation of African Americans to the environment and to the environmental movement.įinney came to campus on Nov. We must revisit and revise the way we do things – the frameworks we use, the value we attach to particular kinds of knowledge, the forms of expression that have currency in decision-making arenas – in order to invite creativity and maximize the possibility for positive change.What place do African Americans have in the environmental debate? Why have we collectively come to understand/see/envision the environmental debate as shaped and inhabited primarily by white people?
I do not think that any one lens is necessarily better than the other – and why pick one way of engaging the world when you can have three? So, I choose to work from the intersection of all those ways of learning, practicing, and knowing ourselves and the world we live in.Īll of my work grows out of a commitment to question conventional wisdom and reconsider long-held assumptions regarding the production, representation, and dissemination of knowledge about people, places, and ideas. While the arts, in the broadest sense, provided the first lens for me to understand difference (broadly defined) and my own life, my educational and professional experiences have also infused my thinking with expanded rigor and vision. I do this by tapping into my performance background (eleven years as a professional actress), my academic experience (particularly as a cultural geographer), and my time living and working in diverse contexts both nationally and internationally. Each piece of my work is intentionally curated - be it an essay, a performance piece, a class, or an opportunity to engage in dialogue - as a way to practice relationship-building across differences that fosters creativity and possibility.
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