Racial injustice and climate change are the two most urgent challenges facing democracies today. Environmental justice activists and scholars have made the public more aware of the disproportionate impact of pollution and climate change on communities of color. However, scholars, policymakers, and the public alike tend to treat social and environmental issues separately, hampering our ability to adequately address either. Repairing these social and environmental fractures requires collaborative solutions informed by historical, political, environmental, and local knowledge. The Repair Lab will bring together this expertise, and, in so doing, produce novel research, teaching, and public programming that deepens our understanding of the causes, consequences, and countermeasures of environmental and climate injustice locally and around the world.
Black and Indigenous Feminist Futures Institute
The Black & Indigenous Feminist Futures Institute (BIFFI) strives to promote interdisciplinary research, scholarship, and cultural production that elevates intersectional feminist Black and Indigenous Studies. BIFFI achieves these aims through a “Fellows-in-Residence” program that hosts elders, artists, scholars, organizers, and practitioners at UVA; Summer Institutes that offer intensive instruction in intersectional feminist Black and Indigenous theories, methods, curricular design, pedagogies, and community building work; and by establishing the first “Black and Indigenous Studies Certificate Program” in the US South.
The Virginia Coast Long-Term Ecological Research (VCR/LTER) project’s research activities focus on the mosaic of transitions and steady-state systems that comprise the barrier-island/lagoon/mainland landscape of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Primary study sites are located on Hog Island, Parramore Island and mainland marshes near Nassawadox, VA.