UConn Meaning Group

The theme of the event is metaphilosophy. We encourage participants to share their thoughts in a 10 to 15-minute presentation on any topic related to the nature of philosophy, philosophical methodology, the future of philosophy, or the question of progress in philosophy. Each presentation will be followed by a 5-minute Q&A session. Presentations don’t need to be overly formal—this is simply a chance to share ideas and engage in meaningful dialogue.

Featuring: Bruno Seraphin, Professor of Anthropology and Social and Critical Inquiry with Commentary by Ananda Griffin, PhD Student, Philosophy. Seraphin’s book in progress examines the politics of wildfire and prescribed burning in Karuk aboriginal territory in the unsettled colonial present.

Joseph Brown (UMass-Boston). Social movements mobilize to fight climate change, water pollution, and biodiversity loss with a variety of direct action tactics. What is the best way to understand these campaigns? This book argues that the “environmental” framework fails to capture the importance of race and Indigenous sovereignty in intersectional “environmental justice” movements. The importance of intersectionality emerges in months of participant observation fieldwork inside Atlanta’s Stop Cop City movement and the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Dozens of interviews illuminate the political and social pathways to direct action, as well as the controversies that arise over strategy and tactics. Given its “insider” research approach, the book sheds light on the subjective experience of direct action, including the highs and lows, triumphs and traumas, hopes and fears of those engaged in frontline environmental justice struggle.

The contractual relationships between an insurer and its policyholders contains enormous potential for insurers to support their policyholders to reduce environmentally harmful activities and take adaptation measures that make their property more resilient to climate risks. But there are important legal pitfalls here as well. This talk examines enabling approaches throughout the policy life cycle, including raising policyholder awareness of climate risk and climate change mitigation/adaptation measures, assessing policyholders’ climate-related risk profiles at the pre-contractual stage, price signalling, exercising influence through terms and conditions, and green claims and reinstatement.

Recommended Reading: Franziska Arnold-Dwyer, A Legal Framework for Net Zero Aligned Insurance Products, 29 Conn. Ins. L.J. 1 (2022-3).

A brown bag is a one hour, generally (though not exclusively) intra-departmental colloquium, starting with a twenty to twenty five minute talk by a faculty member or graduate student, filled from there to the end with lively questions and answers.

“Climate Change, Migration, and Inequality”

Filiz Garip (Princeton University)

There are over 10 million Mexican migrants in the United States; about half are undocumented. This work connects the historical mobility patterns to the United States extreme weather conditions in Mexico. The analysis combines predictive machine learning tools with mechanism-based statistical models. The results show that combination and sequencing of droughts are critical to all aspects of the migration process: who migrates, whether migrants use clandestine channels to cross, and when they return to Mexico.

Lunch will be served:

1. Buffalo Chicken Wrap (buffalo chicken, chopped romaine, and shredded carrots with ranch dressing)
2. The Riviera (turkey, brie cheese & thinly sliced granny smith apple with lettuce & cranberry mayonnaise on a croissant)
3. Roasted Vegetable Stack Sandwich (grilled portabella mushroom, roasted red pepper, caramelized onion and other seasonal grilled vegetables topped with a balsamic glaze, served on a brioche roll)
4. Chick Pea Salad Wrap (chick peas, dill, parsley and celery tossed with vegan mayonnaise, served with lettuce, tomato in an herb wrap)
5. Potato salad
6. Cookies & mini brownies
7. Soda and water

The 3rd Annual Sustainable And Resilient Communities Workshop will take place virtually from 10-11:30 a.m. Dec. 10-11, 2024. Learn about resilience assistance programs, new tools and planning for inundation through relocation, land use policies and buyout programs. Leading up to the workshop, the SRC Team will host two field trips to showcase community resilience in Hamden, CT, and Rye, NY. Register at: lisresilience.org/annual-workshop or use the QR code in the flier. More info: https://seagrant.uconn.edu/?p=12417