The University in the Era of Climate Change and the Responsibility of the Civic University

ISS21 Research for Civil Society and Social Action (REACT) Cluster host this Seminar on ‘The University in the Era of Climate Change and the Responsibility of the Civic University’.

• Presenter: Professor Keri Facer, School of Education, University of Bristol
• Discussant: Professor John O’Halloran, President, UCC

In the context of the climate change emergency, Keri Facer will present a keynote paper will explore the role of universities in helping to create ecologically sustainable and socially just futures. The paper will consider the challenge from four angles: what this means for the research agenda, for educational offerings, and for the day to day operations and civic responsibilities of the university. It will argue that universities have a real opportunity to play a leading role in the social, economic and cultural changes needed to address the causes and consequences of a changing climate.

The seminar will include a creative contribution from prize-winning Poet Molly Twomey.

Prof Keri Facer is Professor of Educational and Social Futures, University of Bristol and Guest Professor in Education for Sustainable Development at Gothenburg University. Her work is concerned with creating the conditions for ecologically sustainable and socially just futures and the role of education and informal learning in these processes. She is Editor in Chief of the Journal Futures, for 8 years she was Leadership Fellow for the UKRI Connected Communities Programme (£40m of research on university-community collaborations), was Zennström Guest Professor in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University from 2018-2020 and has been advising UNESCO on their Futures of Education 2050 Commission since 2019. She has published widely on the relationship between education and environmental, technological and social change and in particular on long-term educational futures.

Prof John O’Halloran was recently appointed 16th President of UCC. He has a record for leading transformative change across the university and a strong commitment to sustainability, inclusion and diversity. An ornithologist who holds the chair in zoology at UCC, he has authored a significant body of international research papers and several book chapters which focus on the ecological impacts of land-use change and climate change on our community. He is a member and former executive board member of BirdWatch Ireland; advisor to the European Environment Agency; Chair of the Board of Fota Wildlife Park and holds board membership of the NUI Senate, the Ludgate Hub and UCC’s Glucksman Gallery, amongst others. Professor O’Halloran is committed to developing an inclusive culture at UCC, where equality is upheld, and diversity is respected. He is dedicated to putting sustainability at centre stage in UCC, in the community and beyond.

Molly Twomey is a poet, writer, and essayist. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from UCC where she works. Her work has been widely published including by Poetry Ireland, The Irish Times, Crannóg and Myslexia. Molly won the Padraic Colum Poetry Prize in 2019, the Waterford Poetry Prize in 2020 and the Eavan Boland Mentorship Award 2021.