Sabine LeBel on Queer Environmental Futures [video]

Dr. Sabine LeBel, an Assistant Professor of Culture and Media Studies at the University of New Brunswick, delivered the talk, “Queer Environmental Futures” on October 9, 2020 by Zoom.

This talk discussed the Queer Environmental Futures project, an academic and creative project, which began several years ago. It consists of collaborative short experimental films, a series of video installations, and an art residency in collaboration with Anima Casa Rural, a permaculture project in Jalisco, Mexico led by Director Julian Calleros.

“From the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to the rash of queer youth suicides in recent decades, we suggest that queer communities have created art and activism that imagine “impossible futures,” and thus bring a unique perspective to environmental catastrophe, including the current climate crisis. This entwined history of queer art and activism offers a model of ethical engagement and strategies for resilience, mourning, and recovery in the face of environmental catastrophe,” says LeBel.

Dr. LeBel is an Assistant Professor in the Culture and Media Studies Department at the University of New Brunswick Fredericton. Working in the area of environmental media studies, her research is in the areas of waste, affect, and the visual. She also has an art practice, mostly consisting of video work.In 2016, with Casey Burkholder, she started the Fredericton Feminist Film Collective, dedicated to making, screening and talking about works by and for queers, trans folks and women.

Part of St. Thomas University’s Environmental Praxis Lecture Series, this talk is supported by the NB Media Co-op and RAVEN – Rural Action and Voices for the Environment, a research project based at the University of New Brunswick

Upcoming lectures:

Oct. 23 – Bob Bancroft, Nova Scotia wildlife biologist and CBC radio personality, on the Acadian forest and what is lost in the conversion of forests to plantations.

Nov. 6 – Daniel Tubb, Professor of Anthropology, University of New Brunswick, on his new book, Shifting Livelihoods: Gold Mining and Subsistence in the Chocó, Colombia.

Nov. 20 – Valerie Lannon, climate activist and co-author of Indigenous Sovereignty and Socialism, and David Bush, York Ph.D. student, labour organizer and editor of Rank and File and Spring, on the Green New Deal and the socialist case against the carbon tax.

For the Zoom link or for more information, contact: info@nbmedicoop.org.