Mayah’s Lot: Building the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders

Mon, 27 March, 2023 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Mayah's Lot book cover

“Environmental Justice, I bet you don’t even know what that means…I had no idea that it actually affects every one of us. That is until it came to my home”

So begins Mayah’s Lot, Book 1 of the Environmental Justice Chronicles. Mayah’s Lot tells the story of a young girl who organizes her urban neighbors to block the siting of an industrial waste storage facility in their already overburdened community. The fictional town of Forestville could be anywhere that struggles with environmental injustice and that is overburdened with polluting industry, while not accruing much of the wealth those activities generate. Since Mayah’s Lot was first published in 2012, the Environmental Justice Chronicles has grown to include Bina’s Plant, Troop’s Run, and The Earth Defenders (made in partnership with the United Nations Environmental Programme).

Created in partnership with artist Charlie LaGreca and NYC students, The Environmental Justice Chronicles helps young city dwellers build a new environmentalism that is not only about protecting wilderness but also about protecting their own neighborhoods. These young people represent the future of our ever-more-urban world. If they do not see environmental protection as their fight, it spells disaster for us all.

This talk describes how the Environmental Justice Chronicles began. It chronicles how Mayah’s Lot has been used to teach basic civics, build environmental justice awareness, turn environmental knowledge into social advocacy, and cultivate a new generation of environmental leaders. As we work toward a just transition to a carbon-free economy, these lessons are central to achieving climate justice and energy justice as well as environmental justice. The Environmental Justice Chronicles is not only a good story, but it is also a teaching tool that introduces readers to street science, basic administrative procedures, and effective community organizing. Readers learn alongside Mayah. From its start as a comic book, Mayah’s Lot has grown into a video and curriculum that has engaged students in classrooms across New York City, the United States, and beyond. Using non-traditional tools and project learning, the book opens conversations about what kind of a society students want to have—asking them to notice how environmental benefits and burdens are currently distributed across populations, and then to work for a fairer, greener world.

Join us on March 27, 12-2 pm, for a workshop featuring a lecture by The Environmental Justice Chronicles author, Prof. Rebecca Bratspies, followed by a panel of experts offering their reactions from the perspectives of law, urban policy, public health, and energy policy. This is a hybrid event. Remote attendees will receive a Zoom link at least 24 hours prior to the event. You must register on Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.


Speakers

Randall S. Abate - Moderator

Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies

Randall S. Abate joined GW Law in July 2022 as the Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies. He brings 28 years of experience teaching, writing, managing programs, and mentoring students on domestic and international environmental law issues in various contexts.

To read his full bio, click here.

Rebecca M. Bratspies

Law Professor, City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law

Rebecca Bratspies is a Law Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where she is the founding Director of the Center for Urban Environmental Reform. She is an internationally recognized expert on environmental justice, the regulation of new agricultural technologies, and the human right to a healthy environment. Professor Bratspies has written scores of law review articles, op-eds, and other publications including four books. Her most recent book Environmental Justice: Law Policy and Regulation is used in schools across the country.

To read her full bio, click here.

Emily Hammond

Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs; Glen Earl Weston Research Professor, The George Washington University Law School

Professor Hammond is a nationally recognized expert in energy law, environmental law, and administrative law. A former environmental engineer, Professor Hammond brings technical fluency to cutting-edge issues at the intersection of law, science, and policy. Their scholarship focuses on the regulatory process, the responses of various legal institutions to scientific uncertainty, electricity markets, climate change, and the law of water quality.

To read their full bio, click here.

Saniya LeBlanc

Associate Professor, The George Washington University

Professor Saniya LeBlanc's research lies at the intersection of materials science, energy conversion, and thermal transport. Her group enables nanomaterials integration by bridging the divide between rapid, inexpensive manufacturing of nanostructures and device integration of nanoengineered components. Her experimental research includes the development of scalable nanomanufacturing processes such as spray coating and printing of functional nanomaterials. Projects involve energy-harvesting devices that utilize the unique combination of properties offered by nanostructured materials; recent examples include thermoelectric power generators for waste-heat recovery. Combining energy system, cost, and policy analyses, she creates feasibility assessments for the scaling of nanotechnologies for energy applications.

To read her full bio, click here.

Monica Sanders

"The Undivide Project," Founder

Monica Sanders is the Founder of "The Undivide Project," an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities via Internet infrastructure and service-centered IoT solutions.

She also holds a faculty role at the Georgetown University Law Center and is a Senior Fellow at the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders' practical experience includes serving as a Senior Committee Counsel for both the House of Representatives and Senate Committees on Homeland Security. In those roles, she focused on oversight of disaster response and recovery programs. She also served as the Senior Legal Advisor for International Response and Programs at the American Red Cross, and as an attorney for the Small Business Administration during the Hurricane Maria and 2017 western wildfire responses. She also studied security and defense-civilian coordination in the European Union Visitor's Program and remains involved in crisis response operations as part of the Team Rubicon USA and UNDP rosters. She has been profiled in publications such as ForbesAuthority Magazine and Thrive Global.


Schedule

March 27
 
11:30 am - Noon Box lunches available, while supplies last
Noon - 12:15 pm Welcome remarks, Dayna Bowen Matthew, Dean, The George Washington University Law School 
12:15 - 1 pm Lecture from Prof. Bratspies, followed by audience Q&A
1 - 1:15 pm Networking break
1:15 - 2 pm Panelists' reflections on lecture, moderated by Assistant Dean Randall Abate 
Where
Science & Engineering Hall 800 22nd Street, NW Washington DC 20052
Room: Lehman Auditorium/Zoom

Admission
Open to everyone.

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