A big thank you to everyone who was able to join our fourth ‘Disability & Climate: In Conversation With…’ session, and to Professor Julia Watts Belser for such a moving and thoughtful talk around ‘Disability Wisdom for Climate Crisis’.
Julia shared her work to document disability climate wisdom in Disability and Climate Change: A Public Archive Project, a project that showcases insights from disabled activists, artists, and first responders who are grappling with climate change. During the session, we explored key issues from the archive - how disability insights about limits and loss can help us better navigate a precarious world, why climate solutions need to reckon with longstanding inequality and chronic crisis, as well as ways to nourish hope and centre ourselves in the practices of community care.
Julia Watts Belser (she/her) is scholar, rabbi, and longtime activist for disability and gender justice. She is a professor of Jewish Studies and Disability Studies at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
Julia directs Disability and Climate Change: A Public Archive Project and is the author of several books, most recently Loving Our Own Bones: Rethinking Disability in an Ableist World (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023; published in the US by Beacon Press). She’s also a passionate wheelchair hiker, an avid gardener, and a lover of wild places.
During the session, Julia shared a number of valuable links, including:
Disability and Climate Change Public Archive Plain Language resources: http://disabilityclimatechange.georgetown.domains/plain-language/
Loving Our Own Bones Plain Language resources: https://www.juliawattsbelser.com/plain-language
Sunstorm Stories: https://www.ndrn.org/resource/sunstorm-stories/
Climate Crisis Makes Us Recognise Our Limits; Disability Culture Can Show Us How: https://truthout.org/articles/climate-crisis-makes-us-recognize-our-limits-disability-culture-can-show-us-how/
Disabled People Cannot Be “Expected Losses” in the Climate Crisis: https://truthout.org/articles/disabled-people-cannot-be-expected-losses-in-the-climate-crisis/
Julia also suggested that if people would like to stay connected to Archive developments, talks and events, it is possible to sign up online: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/821838/113351617116374238/share
We would also like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for making this session possible.