In the face of climate change, activists have shown how powerfully race shapes one's access to safe water, air, and land. Allison Puglisi's research explores Black Americans' relationships with the natural world to reinterpret the environmental justice movement: an environmentalism rooted in antiracism.

Much of the literature on the environmental justice movement centers the United Church of Christ's 1990s lobbying efforts. Puglisi's research charts the environmental visions of earlier organizations, particularly Black women, who made the 1990s campaign possible. She argues that housing activism laid the groundwork for a modern Black environmental tradition. Black activists saw housing inequities as inextricable from the land on which their homes sat, and they understood home as both one's house and its broader ecology: a way of thinking she calls residency. In this talk, Puglisi explores some examples of residency across the twentieth century. 

Lunch will be provided. Kindly RSVP by March 7, 2025.