Please join the Columbia University Language Resource Center, The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning, The Columbia Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Harriman Institute for the conference Language and Climate: Making Connections for a Sustainable Future.

The relationship between climate and language is multifaceted and complex. It involves the constant interplay between environmental conditions, human adaptation, cultural practices, and language use. This symposium aspires to explore the nexus between climate and language study and examine the ideological assumptions that shape the relationship between the natural world and the language used to speak about it.

The Consortium symposium will take place at Columbia University in the South Hall of the historic Riverside Church. Check-in on Friday starts at 4pm and the keynote introduction will begin at 4:30pm. Saturday, May 4 will feature panels of climate scholars, language professionals, administrators, and students. Breakfast will start at 8:30am, and the symposium will end at 4:30pm. Please note that the symposium will also be livestreamed and will be available to the general public. Please check back for livestreaming information closer to the symposium date.

Conference Program

Day One: Friday, May 3, 2024

4:00 – 4:30pm | Check-In and Welcoming Remarks

• Andrew Ross, President, Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning
• Bruno Bosteels, Dean of Humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University; Jesse and George Siegel Professor in the Humanities
• Stephane Charitos, Director, Language Resource Center, Columbia University

 4:45 – 5:45pm | Keynote

• Genevieve Guenther, Founding Director, Ending Climate Silence, Affiliate Faculty, The New School

5:45 – 7:00pm | Reception

Day Two: Saturday, May 1, 2024

8:30 – 9:00am | Registration and Breakfast

9:00 – 9:30am | Saturday Keynote

• Christina Gerhardt, Associate Professor, Lead of the Environmental Humanities, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

9:45 – 10:30am | Panel 1: Climate Humanities in University Curricula

• Sarah Cole, Interim Dean, School of the Arts, Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
• Ana Fernández-Cebrián, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
• Ross Perlin, Lecturer, Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University

10:30 – 11:15am | Panel 2: Critical Tools for Engaging with Climate and Language

• Claire Sisisky, Executive Director of the Global Education Benchmark Group, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Klingenstein Center of Teachers College
• Theresa Summer, Associate Professor of Teaching English as a Foreign Language, University of Bamberg, Germany
• Erin Friedman, Research Scientist at the City University of New York Remote Sensing Earth Systems Institute

11:15 – 11:30am | Coffee Break

11:30am – 12:30pm | Panel 3: Curricular Offerings Engaging with Climate and Language

• Francisca Aguiló-Mora, Lecturer, Spanish, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
• Maria Eugenia Lozano, Senior Lecturer, Spanish & Latin American Cultures, Barnard College
• Claire-Marie Brisson, Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures (French), Harvard University
• Américo Mendoza-Mori, Lecturer in Latinx Studies, Faculty Director, Latinx Studies Working Group, Harvard University

12:30 – 1:15pm | Panel 4: The Student Voice

• Harrison Gerson, Sustainable Development, Columbia University
• Renata X. Ruiz Figueroa, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University
• Fransha Dace, Ph.D. Student in Climate Resilience, Yale School of the Environment

1:15 – 2:30pm | Lunch Break

2:30 – 3:15pm | Panel 5: Institutional Responses to the Climate Crisis

• Bruno Bosteels, Dean of Humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Jesse and George Siegel Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
• Jorge Méndez-Seijas, Spanish Language Program Director and Senior Lector, Yale University
• Sandra Goldmark, Senior Assistant Dean of Interdisciplinary Engagement, Columbia Climate School

3:15 – 3:30pm | Coffee Break

3:30 – 4:30pm | Closing Keynote

• Mark Turin, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of British Columbia