May 6, 2023

Prescott College to Host 15th Annual Sustainability Education Ph.D. Symposium May 8-12


Click to view the full schedule of Symposium events. All events are FREE and open to the public and will be available online via Zoom.

Prescott College’s 15th Annual Ph.D. Sustainability Education Ph.D. Symposium, set for May 8-12, 2023 promises to be an exciting and stimulating community experience.

This year’s symposium will feature three keynote speakers, Dr. Darshan Campos and Dr. Jenn Marlon, and Dr. Dalya Perez, as well as an exciting line-up of doctoral candidates and student research presentations.

On Wednesday, May 10th, starting at 9:00 a.m. (Arizona time), Darshan Campos, Ph.D. will present, “Seeds as a Living Medium of Ancestral Connection: Seedkeeping in the Indigenous Black Caribbean.” In this talk, Dr. Campos (they/elle/two spirit) shares the vision and decolonial practices of Somos Semillas Antillanas, a mobile seed library and community seedbank that specializes in seeds and trees of the Indigenous Black Caribbean. 

On Thursday, May 11th, starting at 1:00 p.m. (Arizona time), Jenn Marlon, Ph.D. will present a keynote titled, “Engaging the Public with Climate Change.” Strong public and political will is essential to the fight for a safe and stable climate. This workshop draws on nationally representative surveys collected over the past 15 years to examine Americans’ climate views and how they are changing over time. Based on the survey data, six distinct audiences among the American public are identified and discussed, providing a foundation for communicating more effectively about climate change with the public. The talk will also identify key challenges and opportunities in communicating climate change in general.

On Friday, May 12th, starting at 1:30 p.m. (Arizona time), Dalya Perez, Ph.D. will present “Stories as Survivance: Understanding stories of diaspora as historical consciousness and cultural wealth.” Dr. Dalya will share her journey as a scholar of Filipinx critical colonization and ways that she created curriculum and pedagogy for Filipinx American students to re-remember and re-learn a critical history of colonial history, she will take participants on a journey from how this scholarship bridged into a career in tech and in the metaverse and her work supporting Breonna’s Garden, a memorial tribute to Breonna Taylor in augmented and virtual reality and into helping design an accessible and equitable metaverse. Participants will get introduced to theory and practice of diasporic storytelling and counter narratives as forms of cultural wealth and survivance. Participants will have the opportunities to craft their own diasporic narratives and imagine how to bridge these into scholarship and practice.

Prescott’s Ph.D. Sustainability Education Symposium provides both information and inspiration as students continue on their learning path. A complete schedule of events, including Dissertation presentations and panel discussions, provide the opportunity for students to present research, ideas, and work-in-progress to peers and faculty, receiving both support and challenge in return. The symposium also includes opportunities to learn about the work of others in the field, meet with their faculty, and gather with their cohort of fellow learners.