The Mandel Center Working Group on Climate Change
An Interview with Sabine von Mering and Mary Baine Campbell
Tell us a little bit about the Reading/Working Group on Climate Change?
The Mandel Humanities Center Reading/Working Group Climate Change: A Threat to Human Civilization and Life as We Know It is an interdisciplinary group, open to faculty, staff and grad students across all schools at the university.
What are some of the Climate Change Working Group’s activities?
We mainly concentrate on reading (occasionally viewing) and discussion, though most of us (not all) are environmental or climate activists as well, and we've been involved in attempts to divest the university's endowment as well as advocating for more climate literacy across the curriculum--for example through a required multidisciplinary climate course.
What sorts of books does the Climate Change Working Group read?
Readings differ depending on who can participate in a given semester or year, and have ranged from scientific articles about hydro-engineering or green finance to climate fiction, environmental ethics, and currently a work about varieties of the economic theory christened "décroissance" by French economists, The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism. It starts from the fact that the physical planet can't maintain the annual growth inherent in "fossil capital."
Tell us a little bit about Guest Speakers at the Climate Change Working Group?
Sometimes we host outside visitors. For instance, we hosted a public screening of the documentary film Merchants of Doubt, followed by a discussion with Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes (on whose book of the same title the film is based). When we read Amitav Ghosh's cli-fi novel Gun Island, we invited him to talk about it, and he joined us via Zoom. We also brought Harvard climate scientist James Anderson to campus in person to give us an update on the newest climate science – another event that we opened to the entire campus.
How can new members join the group?
Newcomers are always welcome: email Sabine at vonmering@brandeis.edu to get added to our mailing list (or to join the more expansive climatechangeinitiative mailing list, where we regularly share and discuss new research, innovations, and actions related to the climate crisis).