Environmental Joy

October 27 - 28, 2023

Highlighted Speakers

Bishop William J. Barber II

Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign

Founding Director, Center for Public Theology and Public Policy

Alfred Brownell

Tom and Andi Bernstein Visiting Human Rights Fellow

Goldman Prize Winner - 2019 Africa

Yale Law School

Aja DeCoteau

Executive Director

Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Michael Mendez

Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and Urban Planning

University of California, Irvine

Toshi Reagon

Musician

Composer, Producer, and Activist Composer, Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower

Laurie Santos

Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College

Yale University

The work of environmental justice communities around the world would not be possible without the element of joy – how joy holds communities together in the face of injustice and adversity, how the search for well-being and joy powers community innovation, how resilience, survival, and even thriving all serve as deep resources that power big change.  

Environmental Joy will be a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural exploration and celebration of these practices. The conference will make plain how practices and experiences of joy are core to the work of indigenous and environmental justice communities everywhere.  And how they hold the key to solving our most pressing environmental challenges.