2025 Voices on the Environment: “Writing Climate Symposium”
Hosted by the Lannan Center, the Earth Commons, Climate Rights International, and Georgetown Humanities Initiative from March 25 to 27, the symposium explored the intersection of literature, science, and activism around climate change. It featured a variety of speakers, among them Amitav Ghosh, Omar El Akkad, Kumi Naidoo, and a reading from Susan Sarandon.
Under the leadership of Rabid Alameddin, Lannan Foundation Visiting Chair at Georgetown University, and with the precious help of Patricia Guzman, the “Writing Climate Symposium” in this year’s “Voices on the Environment” devoted each of its three nights to a theme at the junction of climate and literature.
First Night
The highlight of the first night, centered around “Earth/Land,” was a keynote discussion with Amitav Ghosh, moderated by journalist Razia Iqbal, an anchor of Newshour on the BBC World Service, and visiting professor at Princeton University in the School of Public and International Affairs.
One of the most thought-provoking voices on climate today, through books like The Nutmeg’s Curse and The Great Derangement, Amitav Ghosh challenges us to rethink how we understand our planet and our place in it. “Like a planet, a nutmeg too can never be seen in its entirety at one time,” he writes, a reminder that our perspectives are always shifting.
Second Night
The second night, on “Climate Action,” included a panel on Indigenous relationships to land featuring Sámi-Swedish writer Linnea Axelsson (author of Aednan, which was long-listed for the 2024 National Book Award) and Inupiaq-Inuit poet dg nanouk okpik (author of Blood Snow, a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry). The conversation was moderated by Mary Kathryn Nagle, a lawyer and advocate for Indigenous rights.
Closing out the night, global activist Kumi Naidoo (former Executive Director of Greenpeace International and Secretary General of Amnesty International) joined Brad Adams of Climate Rights International to discuss the urgency of climate action and how we turn awareness into change.
Third Night
The third evening, dedicated to “The Future” and sustainable human existence, opened with a reading by activist and Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon, from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.
A Conversation on Climate & Biology followed, with evolutionary biologist Dr. Dino J. Martins (director of Stony Brook University’s Turkana Basin Institute) and Aminatta Forna, director of the Lannan Center and award-winning author, who is currently working on an ecological history of the Great African Rift Valley, a place where landscape and climate intertwine with evolution that could hold the key to our collective future.
The closing event featured journalist and author Omar El Akkad (What Strange Paradise, American War), who, in conversation with New York Times contributor Aida Alami, addressed how his works reflect the experiences of individuals and communities impacted by climate and war catastrophes.
