Yale Mellon Sawyer Seminar: Sarah Wylie: Enacting Environmental Data Justice

I write to invite you to a talk by Prof. Sarah Wylie (Northeastern University), entitled “Enacting Environmental Data Justice.”

Time: 12pm EST on Feb 5, 2021

Registration: https://yale.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkceqtrjstGtJcJM1Wa8MsijNAduRMZ_IW

Abstract:

Premature births, unexplained human and livestock sicknesses, flammable water faucets, toxic wells and the onset of hundreds of earthquakes, the impacts of fracking in the United States are far-reaching and deeply felt. In this talk Dr. Wylie explores how extractive resource systems, like natural gas extraction through fracking, are proceeded and supported by extractive data systems that create asymmetric access to information. Drawing together the fields of Environmental Justice and Data Justice, Wylie explores how we can build community centered information systems that help create accountability for corporations and state agencies. Based on her work building tools for community monitoring of the oil and gas industry and co-developing the watchdog organization the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) Dr. Wylie reflects on how we can create community centered research and data systems that move beyond mapping exposure disparities to address the drivers of toxic contamination and make corporations responsible for their environmental harms. This precious present moment of rebuilding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, provides an opportunity to jointly create sustainable and just systems. Now is the time, Wylie argues to organize and collectively theorize, develop, and enact environmental data justice.

Speaker Info:

Sara Wylie, PhD, is an Associate Professor Sociology/Anthropology and Health Science in Northeastern University’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI). She is a cofounder of the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), a network of academics and non-profits working to preserve federal environmental data and monitor changes to federal environmental policy through website tracking and interviews. Sara is a cofounder of Public Lab, a non-profit that develops open source, Do-It-Yourself tools for community-based environmental analysis. Her award winning book Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds describes the need to rethink the extractive research systems that proceed and enable extractive industries. 

To learn more about the Yale Mellon Sawyer Seminar, "The Order of Multitudes," please visit www.orderofm.com.

Related date: 

January 21, 2021 to February 5, 2021