We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe from the University of Victoria, BC will be our plenary speaker for the 33rd annual PNW SETAC conference. Dr. Wiebe’s talk manages to address many aspects of our work we find compelling: environmental justice, resident engagement, and the pathways by which we bridge our science with action for healthier communities.
The conference will take place from May 13th-May 15th at the Edgefield Resort in Troutdale, Oregon.
Pollution Exposure and Democratic Deliberation: The Promises and Paradoxes of Public Engagement, Lessons from Canada’s Chemical Valley for Environmental Justice
Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe grew up on Coast Salish territory in British Columbia, BC. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Hawai’i, Mānoa with a focus on community development and environmental sustainability. She is a Co-Founder of the FERN (Feminist Environmental Research Network) Collaborative and a Board Member of the Climate Disaster Project. Her book Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley (2016) with UBC Press won the Charles Taylor Book Award (2017) and examines policy responses to the impact of pollution on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation’s environmental health. Alongside Dr. Jennifer Lawrence (Virginia Tech), she is the Co-Editor of Biopolitical Disaster and along with Dr. Leah Levac (Guelph), the Co-Editor of Creating Spaces of Engagement: Policy Justice and the Practical Craft of Deliberative Democracy. At the intersections of environmental justice and citizen engagement, her teaching and research interests emphasize political ecology, policy justice and deliberative dialogue. As a collaborative researcher and filmmaker, she worked with Indigenous communities on sustainability-themed films including To Fish as Formerly. She collaborated with artists from Attawapiskat on a project entitled Reimagining Attawapiskat and is a Co-Director for the Seascape Indigenous Storytelling Studio, with research partners from the University of Victoria, University of British Columbia and coastal Indigenous communities. She is author of Life against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from Attawapiskat (UBC Press, 2023) and her book Hot Mess: Mothering through a Code Red Climate Emergency is forthcoming with Fernwood Press, 2024. For more about Sarah’s current research, writing and mixed media storytelling, see: www.sarahmariewiebe.com.
