Wednesday, April 2nd at 4pm | FPH West Lecture  

Movements are Ecosystems: Grounding in the Moment

A talk with Michelle Martinez, Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan

Amidst the turmoil of the slow walk to authoritarianism, activists and organizers are strategizing their next best move whilst responding to multiple urgent political and ecological crises. There are key lessons learned through the last twenty years of uprising from the  Bush era Anti-War Movement to Occupy Wall Street, and from the Climate Movement to Abolition, to more recent Movement for Black Lives, MeToo and Palestinian Liberation actions. Our movements are ecosystems that support simultaneous complimentary, and at times contradictory, moments that reveal our collective power; and different theories of social change nourish the ecosystem and build resilience. Michelle's talk asks, How do we move from the individualized, 'What can I do' to the collective, 'what have we been doing', positioning ourselves to learn from a continuous set of relations and responsibilities, reflective of a theory of change that aligns with our worldview? 

Michelle Martinez was born in and raised by the Latine diaspora of Southwest Detroit. She is a climate justice organizer fighting for the survival of humans and more than humans on traditional Anishnaabe territories. Currently Martinez is the Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan and a lecturer in its School of Environment and Sustainability where she trains students studying environmental justice in social change theory and practice. She is a founding member of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and served as its Statewide coordinator and Executive Director from 2017 to 2022. 

This event is part of the Learning Collaboratives Spring Symposium Series - In These Times: movements, media and science.