Elizabeth A. Wentz Graduate College
Named in honor of her generous endowment, ASU’s Vice Provost and Dean Elizabeth A. Wentz is committed to continuing the Graduate College Distinguished Lecture Series as a platform for recognizing and discussing important topics in innovation, leadership, sustainability, and graduate education as a public good, helping academics make a meaningful impact in their fields of research and their communities.
We are in a global crisis that is having profound impacts on people and nature. It has been referred to as a polycrisis, a megacrisis, a metacrisis, and a permacrisis. These terms sound big and daunting and leave little room for a sense of agency and impact. In this talk, the speaker's point of departure is that we are facing a paradigm crisis, whereby our dominant thought patterns have led us to underestimate our individual and collective capacities to contribute to an equitable and thriving world. Drawing on the metaphors, methods, and meanings of quantum physics and fractal approaches to scaling, she will discuss the relationship between individual change, collective change, and systems change. This has implications for what we do, how we show up, and how we individually and collectively engage with transformations to sustainability. She will describe how we can generate quantum social change, and why you matter more than you think.
Walton Center Auditorium
777 E University Dr
Tempe, AZ
Registration closed.
In case you missed the event, the full recording of the live stream is now available via ASU Live:
Karen O’Brien is a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo, Norway. She is also co-founder of cCHANGE, an organization that supports deep and strategic approaches to transformations to sustainability.
Her research on the human and social dimensions of environmental change emphasizes integrative approaches and she explores the relationship between adaptation and transformations to sustainability. She is especially interested in what quantum social science implies for how we understand, engage with, and scale transformative change.
In 2021, she was co-recipient of the BBVA Foundations Frontiers of Knowledge Award for Climate Change. Karen’s recent books include You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World and Climate and Society: Transforming the Future (with Robin Leichenko). She has participated in four IPCC reports, and is currently co-chair of the International Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) transformative change assessment.
Robin Leichenko is a Professor of Geography at Rutgers University, specializing in economic geography and the social and economic impacts of climate change. Her research focuses on how globalization and climate change affect different communities, regions and economic sectors.
She also co-founded and co-led the Rutgers Climate Institute — now part of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute — and serves as Divisional Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Rutgers. Leichenko is a fellow of the American Association of Geographers and earned a Rutgers Scholar-Teacher award in 2018.
She has authored three books, two of which with Karen O'Brien. Their book Environmental Change and Globalization: Double Exposures received the 2008 Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contribution from the American Association of Geographers. Climate and Society: Transforming the Future, also co-authored with Karen O’Brien, shows that climate change is both a critical challenge for society and also an opening for transformation to a more sustainable and thriving world.
A 30-minute Q&A panel with Karen O’Brien and Robin Leichenko will follow the lecture. You can submit questions for them in advance through your event registration.
