Environment Seminar Series: Climate Anxiety, Climate Justice, and the Future of Reproduction with Jade S. Sasser
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Description
About the Seminar
A small but growing number of studies are increasingly exploring the range of emotions young people experience as a result of climate-driven disruption. One aspect of this research pays particular attention to how these emotions impact both desires and plans to parent children, now and in the future. However, these studies pay little to no attention to racial difference, despite the fact that communities in the U.S. experience differential environmental and climate impacts based on social factors, including race. This presentation explores the question: is race a factor in the expression of climate emotions and parenting plans? And if so, how can we address climate emotions as a key component of climate justice interventions that support vulnerable communities of color?
About the Speaker
Dr. Jade S. Sasser is Associate Professor in the Departments of Gender & Sexuality Studies and Society, Environment, and Health Equity at the University of California, Riverside. She received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work explores how environmental problems such as climate change and toxic exposures intersect with reproductive bodies, health, and rights. Her first book, On Infertile Ground: Population Control and Women’s Rights in the Era of Climate Change, was published in 2018 by NYU Press and won the Emory Elliott book award. Her new book, Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future (2024), analyzes the relationship between climate emotions, social inequality, and reproductive anxiety in the U.S. She also has a podcast with the same name. In her free time, Sasser is a DJ at KUCR, the campus radio station at UC Riverside.