Boswell Symposium to Examine 'Grass Roots Environmental Activism'

September 9, 2007

September 9, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - The fall Hampton and Esther Boswell Symposium at DePauw will mark the first all-campus event of the semester to highlight the University's year-long focus on sustainability. With a theme of "Grassroots Environmental Activism: Race, Economics and Technology," the symposium will take place September 23-24 and feature a keynote address by Majora Carter, founder and executive director of Sustainable South Bronx.

Carter will open the Boswell Symposium with a 7:30 p.m. address on Sunday, September 23, in Walden Inn Social Center.

The following day, at 4:15 pm. in Watson Forum of the Eugene S. Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media, a panel discussion will feature: Darci Thomas, senior technical tanager at August Mack Environmental, Inc., and 1995 graduate of DePauw University; Meredith Williams, project manager at the San Francisco Estuary Institute; and moderator Glen Kuecker, associate professor of history at DePauw.

Majora Carter has received a number of honors for her work with Sustainable South Bronx, including a 2005 MacArthur "genius grant." Sustainable South Bronx is dedicated to environmental justicethough innovative, economically sustainable projects informed by community needs among New York City's poorest and most environmentally oppressed citizens. Carter co-designed and implemented the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (B.E.S.T.) program to involve her fellow community members in all aspects of the environmental remediation and maintenance efforts afoot. She also spearheaded the development of the Hunts Point Riverside Park, the first waterfront park in the South Bronx in over sixty years.

Recently, Majora Carter has served on New York Governor Elliott Spitzer's Energy and Environment Transition Team, and on the Clinton Global Initiative’s Poverty Alleviation Panel. Earlier this year, she received New York University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Humanitarian Service. She was also the 2002 recipient of the NYC Council Women's History Month Pacesetter Award, the 2000 Environmental Advocate Award for Achievements in Community Development and the 1999 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Quality Award.

Carter earned her M.F.A. from New York University and her B.A. from Wesleyan University.

For more information click here, or contact Yvonne Williams, Hampton and Esther Boswell Distinguished University Professor, by sending an e-mail here.

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