Course: From Climate Anxiety to Action: Tools to Build a Radical Imagination
June 20 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
$195We know what a future of climate change apocalypse looks like, but for so many it is difficult to imagine a future of hope and solutions. This course series provide a framework to understand the causes of climate anxiety and tools to turn that anxiety into action through practice cultivating a radical imagination.
Inspired by the works of Sarah Jacquette Ray on climate anxiety, as well as Naomi Klein, adrienne maree brown, Favianna Rodriguez, and bell hooks on tangible actions for transformative social change, participants will practice cultivating a radical imagination through co-creating a cultural revolution to practice re-imagining a future of climate solutions. The goal of this course is to provide a framework for understanding the design systems that have led to the issues of climate change and inequality that directly cause the symptoms of climate anxiety. Participants will learn to reframe climate action away from anxiety and toward community, and to practice tools that can be used at home, in the classroom, or in larger-scale organizing to practice design that embraces community over hyper-individualism, collaboration over competition, and regeneration over extraction.
Participants will:
- Reimagine systems and spaces in a way that identifies how everyday activism and fostering meaningful relationships can support the larger global movement for justice-centered climate action,
- Pair theory with practice by storytelling, visual art, video and more to actualize that change.
- Through mindfulness, journaling activities, storytelling and practicing visual representations, participants will gain tools to work through their own climate anxiety as well as connect problems and projects they are currently grappling with to bring ideas and frameworks back to their teams to implement in their work.
Key Details
Event Date & Time: Course participants will meet virtually 6 times on the second Tuesday of the month (exception June) from 2:00–4:00 p.m. ET starting on June 20 and continuing through November 14.
Location: The course will take place online via Zoom
Registration Fee: $195 (AASHE members), $275 (AASHE non-members), $75 for students
Registration Policies:
- Registration deadline is Tuesday, June 20, 12:00 p.m. EDT.
- Payment is accepted in the form of Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards.
- No cancelations are allowed.
- No substitutions are allowed.
Facilitator
Kat Davis, Climate Justice Advisor, Portland Public Schools
Kat Davis is the Climate Justice Advisor for Portland Public Schools. Starting in June, 2022, Kat works to implement District-wide climate action through the Climate Crisis Response Policy which sets ambitious goals in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts, assess and respond to climate hazards, and center the experience of frontline communities through prioritizing health, wellness, and student empowerment. Prior to this role, Kat was the Sustainability Director at Boise State University from 2017 – 2022 where she co-created outreach and engagement programs with a team of student staff, facilitated the creation of the Sustainability Governance Council, and led the campus in completing its first STARS Report – achieving a Silver rating, and coordinated the development of a campus-wide sustainability action plan. Kat graduated with a BA from University of Colorado, Boulder in 2015 with a degree in Environmental Studies and Geography and a certificate in public health, and completed her MA in 2021 from Boise State University focusing on Sustainability in Communication, Planning, and Design with an exploration of user research and climate anxiety. In her day to day work, Kat operates by collaborating across departments and disciplines to imagine together the best future we can, and then turning that vision to tangible action to move the school systems forward towards climate solutions and community resilience.
Detailed Schedule
June 20: Overview of Climate Anxiety and the Importance of a Radical Imagination
Learn the symptoms and definitions of climate anxiety through a reflection on research as well as a discussion about lived experience. In addition, the concept of a radical imagination will be introduced. Participants will reflect on both concepts throughout the course through a series of journal prompts. Participants will learn to identify climate anxiety in the body and work through tools and methods for working through the symptoms.
July 11: Unpack the Roots of Climate Anxiety
We know what climate anxiety feels like – but where does it come from? Participants will dig into understanding the values and principles of climate change narratives that result in climate anxiety, and learn to identify where these narratives arise in their communities and action networks, as well as when the narrative of doom and despair is used as a tool for inaction.
August 8: Reframe Anxiety to Inspiration
Understanding the root values that have designed a system that causes climate anxiety, participants will co-create a new set of design values and principles that they will utilize to create communication campaigns that inspire collective efficacy.
September 12: Move that Inspiration to Action
Participants will practice exercising creativity and a radical imagination by using vision-board and collage tools to redesign a space using the co-created values and principles that center collective efficacy.
October 10: Sharing Our New Future(s)
Participants will present the spaces they co-created through a narrative form to walk the larger group through a day in the life of their redesigned space that represents a future of solutions.
November 14: What’s Next
Consolidating the different frameworks and methods presented in the course, participants will leave with a toolbox which can be applied to projects at any scale to prioritize organizing techniques that alleviate climate anxiety and create space for action.
Any questions about the course?
Please contact Daita Serghi, education@aashe.org