Environmental Justice Worldmaking
Building Collaborative, Community-Centered Solutions
In October 2024, the Environmental Justice Worldmaking team hosted a two-day symposium and People’s Assembly at the University of Minnesota, bringing together scholars, community members, and guest speakers from the U.S. and abroad to share their experiences and perspectives on environmental justice.
Environmental Justice Worldmaking: Redistribution and Reciprocity for a Just Transition (EJW), one of eleven Grand Research Challenge (GRC) projects supported by Humanities Without Walls (HWW), is a collaboration among the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, the University of Minnesota Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, the University of Minnesota Department of African American & African Studies, and Spelman College. The GRC project grant provides three years of funding of for cross-institutional teams pursuing research with a commitment to methodologies of reciprocity and redistribution.
As elucidated on their website, EJW acknowledges that environmental justice is a continuous struggle led by African American and Indigenous activists against the racially targeted disposal of toxic waste and pollutants in their communities, a consequence of capitalist-industrial practices. The team aims to empower people of color, who bear the brunt of harm done to their environment, to participate in local solutions to these climate crises.
Dr. Rose Brewer—principal investigator for EJW and Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of African American & African Studies at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities—emphasized the importance of local voices in the October symposium.
Minnesota Environmental Justice
Table and Dr. Sam Grant, scholar,
activist and director of
the Rainbow Research Center
“We started with a symposium that was more rooted at the university, and then we went into the community and held a People’s Assembly, which is a long-standing practice that organizers and communities have engaged in around the world as a democratic process, to move forward a set of decision-making and democratization efforts,” she said.
Among the goals of the symposium was to feature grassroots voices and their connection to the work that is happening (often in isolation) on campuses. “We wanted to introduce the broader intellectual community at the University of Minnesota to the work that we've been doing,” Brewer said, “and also ensure that community voices were highly featured, to connect their knowledge production to some of the work that's happening on the campus.”
One area in which EJW seeks to make a direct, local impact is environmental pollution caused by waste incineration in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC), a trash-to-energy incinerator, burns most of Minneapolis’ waste. Data from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency shows that HERC is one of the major sources of air pollution in the city.
the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table
Shutting down HERC has been a longstanding goal of EJ Table, and with the combined EJW team, they are working to complete a comprehensive report that can be used for policy purposes. Conversations from the October symposium, especially interviews with activists and other community-engaged people, are an integral part of the document.
Building connections between the university and the community is critical, especially in addressing environmental pollution and the waste incinerator’s location. And being mindful of the reciprocity among the collaborators is essential. “It has always been our commitment to make sure to use university resources as robustly as possible to enhance and build the power of the community working on these various issues,” Brewer said. “There's so much knowledge, so much work that was already being done with the community and with our community partners, that the reciprocity often went the other way.”
community member,
artist, and drummer
EJW’s overarching goal is to involve communities most affected by climate crises in discussions about local solutions. However, achieving this goal is not without challenges, especially when it comes to timing and availability. While it can be difficult to align university and community members’ schedules, Brewer pointed out, “We couldn't have done the work without drawing upon the long-term organizing that they had already been doing.”
Despite the obstacles, Brewer finds the dedication and participation of everyone involved to be the most inspiring aspect of the project. “I am just amazed at how committed people are…‘committed’ in the sense that they will not give up until justice is realized. It seems like the challenges are quite daunting, but the work continues. And to have that spirit, and not only a spirit, but a set of practices, which makes that manifest, has been just an amazing kind of gift.”