Transformative Talk: Reimagining Climate Justice Universities

Name: Transformative Talk: Reimagining Climate Justice Universities
Start: 2025-09-26T15:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-09-26T17:00:00+02:00
Location: Læderstræde 20, 1201 Copenhagen, Denmark

Schedule

Fri Sep 26 2025 at 03:00 pm to 05:00 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Læderstræde 20, 1201 Copenhagen, Denmark | Copenhagen , SK

The event is free to attend. Please sign up in advance here: https://greensolutions.ku.dk/events/transformative-talk-reimagining-climate-justice-universities/sign-up/
During this time of accelerating climate disruption and growing economic inequities, many are questioning whether education systems are adequately preparing students for destabilising futures and how academic practices, including research, degree programs, and corporate partnerships might be reinforcing extractive and exploitative structures rather than facilitating societal transformation toward more just, stable and healthy futures for all.
This discussion will explore the changing role of higher education institutions and how students and academic staff are engaging with transformative ideas and practices. Critical perspectives on how corporate interests and profit-seeking priorities are influencing academic research and student learning will be discussed. The session will also invite participants to reimagine a restructured higher education system that had reclaimed the public good mission and was committed to advancing transformative climate justice.
Jennie C Stephens is a feminist climate justice scholar activist and Professor of Climate Justice at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. She is the author of Climate Justice and the University: Shaping a Hopeful Future for All (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024) and Diversifying Power: Why We Need Feminist, Antiracist Leadership on Climate and Energy (Island Press, 2020).

About Transformative Talks:
We live in a time of crises, but also of possibilities. It calls for bold and progressive societal transformations that go beyond incrementalism and reliance on technological innovation alone. While there is no shortage of theoretical principles for transformation within academia, concrete examples and experiences are scarce on how one can enact transformation in practice. In the transformative talks series, we invite scholars, change makers, and thought leaders to share insights on the how of societal transformations and examples of transformations happening around us already today.
The series is co-organized by the following groups and centres at the University of Copenhagen:
The Degrowth Thematic Solution under the Green Solutions Centre, The Center for Applied Ecological Thinking, UCPH Degrowth Network, Rethink IFRO