Twenty UPEI researchers present at international conference: Turning the Tide: Climate Change, Social Change and Islandness in Oranjestad, Aruba this week

From October 23rd until October 26th, the University of Aruba and the University of Prince Edward Island will be co-hosting the Second International Conference on Small Island States and Subnational Island Jurisdictions: Turning the Tide: Climate Change, Social Change and Islandness in Oranjestad, Aruba. This event builds on relationships forged between UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies and the UNESCO Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability, and programs at University of Aruba, during the First International Conference on Small Island States and Subnational Island Jurisdictions in March 2019. UNESCO Chair Dr. Jean Mitchell and Institute of Island Studies Chair Dr. Laurie Brinklow co-organized the conference with U of Aruba’s Director of the Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (SISSTEM) program Dr. Eric Mijts, U of Aruba Rector Dr. Viola Huetger, U of Aruba Business Manager Patrick Arens, and KU Leuven Postdoctoral Researcher Anouk Mertens. MAIS graduate student intern Megan Lane MacDonald worked with U of Aruba’s Centre for Lifelong Learning Coordinator Kristen Haime and Student Affairs and Marketing Department Coordinator Charisse Hoen on organizing the program and logistics.

This interdisciplinary conference features a wide range of world-class speakers and experts, including twenty students and professors from UPEI, participating in person and online. They include graduate students Mahir Abrar, Mah Ara Ahmadi, Tristan Atkins, Ross Dwyer, Eliza MacLauchlan, Andrew MacPherson, Jenelle Maillet, Donna Miller-Ayton, Kelly Rivera, and Tianxiang Zhou, and professors in the Master of Arts in Island Studies and Environmental Studies programs Drs Brinklow and Mitchell, Dr. Nick Mercer, and UNB PhD Candidate Andrew Halliday; the Department of Psychology’s and UNB Candidate Ryan Drew; Faculty of Business’s Dr. Susan Graham; Canada Research Chair in Geospatial Humanities Dr. Joshua MacFadyen; Department of Biology’s Dr. Mike van den Heuvel; Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation’s Climate Sense Learning Coordinator Krystal Pyke; as well as a graduate from UPEI’s PhD in Environmental Sciences Dr. Kimberly Wishart Chu Foon. They join dozens more speakers from the Caribbean, the Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. In all, there are over 80 papers, panels, roundtables, and keynote speakers talking about the latest research insights and discussions on climate change and social change in an island context.

Islands are at the front lines of climate change. With close proximity to the oceans, they are often the first to experience land loss due to sea-level rise and erosion. The effects of extreme weather events and changes in seasonality and temperature change on land and in the ocean are life-changing and often catastrophic. But what of social change on islands brought about by climate change? How are the effects of climate change impacting islandness?

Program highlights are the four highly reputable speakers who are at the forefront of research on climate change and social change in an island context.

The Conference will feature the following six keynote speakers who will speak on their areas of expertise

• Dr. Stacey Mac Donald – Conservation Action in the Caribbean Netherlands
• Natasha Silva and Tyson Lopez – Biodiversity of Aruba and the Challenges of Nature Conservation in Small Island Contexts.
• Charissa Granger and Francio Guadeloupe – Human-ing Out Loud: Ontologies of Disorder in a Musically Exemplified Trans-Caribbean-Thought.
• Vishal Prasad – Journey to the International Court of Justice: Taking Climate Change to the World’s Highest Court

Vishal Prasad’s talk will engage with ideas of youth engagement and activism. The Pacific-led campaign to seek an International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion has seen great support at the international level. It began by a group of students, the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, and has culminated in the adoption of a UNGA resolution requesting the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion. This talk will discuss the origins of the campaign by focusing on the specific elements of the campaign that remain at the heart of the youth and civil society movement – human rights and intergenerational equity, and how this campaign can help catalyse greater climate action and ambition. It will also speak about how the advisory opinion campaign is important in shaping the development of international law to be capable in more holistically respond to the challenges brought about by both the climate, and the ensuing, human rights crisis.

UPEI gratefully acknowledges a Connections Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for Turning the Tide.

more information on out keynote speaker can be found at https://projects.upei.ca/unescochair/conferences-events/turning-the-tide/keynote-speakers/

A detailed program and Book of Abstract can be found at https://projects.upei.ca/unescochair/conferences-events/turning-the-tide/

For more information, contact Dr. Laurie Brinklow, Coordinator, Master of Arts in Island Studies and Chair, Institute of Island Studies, UPEI (brinklow@upei.ca).