“Can heritage resources play a larger role in climate change education while inspiring action toward a more just and sustainable future?” This is the question I brought to the U.K. in May-June 2022 as a Fulbright Specialist hosted by the University of Essex History Department. I was able to explore ideas about expanding heritage’s role in addressing climate change with heritage organizations around England in the contexts of industrial heritage, displacement and cultural heritage, policymaking, and more.
In addition to on-campus talks and consultation with Essex faculty and students, we organized several events in association with my Fulbright project. Faculty and graduate students in the University’s history and wild writing programs explored an area of the Suffolk coast that includes The Long Shop Museum (and industrial heritage site), Sizewell nuclear power plant, and the Minsmere Bird Sanctuary. Our focus was on finding and conveying connections among local environmental history, industrial history, social history, social justice, sea level rise and other manifestations of climate change.
In partnership with the University of Derby’s Public History Program we organized a “Roundtable on Industrial heritage and Climate Change” that focussed on the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. Participants shared insights about how the Derwent Valley can connect its world-renowned industrial and natural heritage to greater understanding of the roots of climate change and new strategies for addressing its challenges. Participants include representatives of the Derby Museum of Making, Scotland’s Cateran Ecomuseum, Ironbridge Gorge, Historic England, and the National Trust. Partners from both University of Essex and University of Derby presented our project as part of the biannual “Manchester Histories Festival,” which chose “The History of Climate Change” as their theme.
I also had the opportunity to present my work at a climate change conference organized by the US-UK Fulbright Commission and the University of Sheffield.
Specialists are selected by the U.S. State Department and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board on the basis of their academic and professional achievement, demonstrated leadership in their field, and potential to foster long-term cooperation between institutions in the U.S. and abroad.
Students, faculty and volunteers at the Long Shop Museum.