Community Air Project Presents at AAG
This month I had the opportunity to attend my first ever American Association of Geographers (AAG) conference in San Francisco where I presented about the research of the Community Air Project. This 5 day foray March 17-21 was an expansive snapshot of what geographers worldwide are focusing on in this critical moment. With an almost overwhelming number of sessions each hour, the topics ranged from Black geographies to geographies of care from a number of angles, to more place-based work, to Indigenous and decolonial studies. Notably as well, several sessions this year centered on the impacts of Artificial Intelligence in our changing field. It was a delight to reconnect with colleagues and friends and to meet new folks.
The presentation I did was part of a group titled, “Community Geography and Environmental Justice,” organized and chaired by Ayodeji Iyanda of Prairie View A&M University.
Our session “invite[d] empirical, theoretical, and policy-oriented papers that examine extreme weather, disasters in vulnerable communities, with a deepening understanding of how these communities experience, respond to, and recover from environmental hazards and disasters, and how those events intersect with long-standing social, racial, and economic inequalities to shape health and general well-being. We welcome work that centers community voices and community-based methods, compares places across the Gulf and coastal regions, or links local findings to regional and policy scales.”
It was an honor to be included among the panelists below who presented their interesting and critical work in environmental justice:
Ayodeji Iyanda, Prairie View A&M University |
Thelma Abu, University of Connecticut | Extreme Weather, Mental Health, and Gender: Stakeholder Insights from Ghana |
Michaela Anang, University of California, Davis | Empowering Environmental Justice Communities Through Air Quality Data |
Weichun Liao, University of Colorado Boulder |
Sharing about the work we do is a generative part of our scholarship and research, enhancing the capacity for our field to analyze the methods that best support community endeavors. One takeaway I had from the Q &A was a question from a colleague who wondered whether the changing political landscape of environmental justice has impacted the tenacity and resilience of the community organizations and residents with whom we partner. I reflected with the attendees that while the context within which we work as environmental justice researchers, organizers, and/or advocates frequently shifts, as a movement deeply rooted in resilience and adaptation, the longer arc of environmental justice must and does stay responsive to community needs regardless of political contexts. This is something our project has been able to uphold by continuing to partner with organizations to bring novel technology to their communities and to continue the long term pursuit of cleaner and healthier air and environments.