Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies in Humanities-led Interdisciplinary Environmental Research
Tuesday, 22 November 2022, 4:30 – 5:30pm 
An online seminar by Dr Yairen Jerez Colombié (TCD) as part of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies Seminar Series.
Although the Arts and the Humanities are vital for connecting diverse types of knowledge and supporting inclusion and epistemological nuance in interdisciplinary research, Humanities experts and creative practitioners still occupy a marginal position within environmental studies. This is one of the consequences of most funding bodies’ focus on technical solutions to environmental challenges, which translates in insufficient funding for Humanities-led environmental research. In this light, I will discuss the vital role of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies in addressing the climate crisis. I will highlight through specific examples how studying the arts, philosophies and experiential knowledge of vulnerable communities can contribute to decolonise research practices and understandings of the environment while co-developing more ethical alternatives. This seminar is an invitation to explore how the Eco-Humanities can integrate perspectives and methodologies from intercultural communication, intersectional ecofeminism, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and other (post-) humanistic approaches into EU and nationally funded interdisciplinary projects. Finding avenues to a greater presence of these perspectives in environmental studies is also important for creating a more favourable framework for Humanities-led environmental research. To address these challenges, I will draw upon both my past and current research on subaltern epistemologies from Latin America and the Caribbean in relation to Catalonia and Ireland, as well as on my experiences collaborating with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers.
Dr Yairen Jerez Columbié joined the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies in 2021 as Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies and Intercultural Communication at the Department of Hispanic Studies and the Centre for Global Intercultural Communications. Before joining TCD, she taught in the Universitat de Girona and University College Cork, where she also led interdisciplinary research at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine Research and Innovation (MaREI) and the Environmental Research Institute. She is the author of the monograph Essays on Transculturation and Catalan-Cuban Intellectual History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) and co-editor of the open-access edited volume Creating Resilient Futures: Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change Adaptation Agendas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). Her second monograph will be published by Toronto University Press. She combines teaching and research with creative practice. Her first poetry collection, Fósiles de Lluvia [Fossilised Rain], was published earlier this year through a Trinity Association and Trust Grant, and her poems have appeared in The Poetry Review and Revista Temporales of the MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University, among others.
To register and receive log-in details please email Raymond Davidson at: rdavidso@tcd.ie
Campus Location: Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute
Accessibility: Yes
Room: Galbraith Seminar Room and Online
Event Category: Lectures and Seminars
Type of Event: One-time event
Audience: Researchers, Postgrad, Faculty & Staff, Public
Cost: Free
Contact Name: Raymond Davidson
Contact Email: rdavidso@tcd.ie
