Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Social Sciences/Psychology/Economics
Demmetri Smith - Virginia State University
Co-Author(s): Co-Author: Latia D. Jackson, Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA
Changing social conditions shifted the potential implications of the Milwaukee Urban Environmental Equity Research Project, in which a documentary focused on community perceptions of water and environmental sustainability. As a summer intern in 2017 in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., I participated in the preparation of the video to complete a fourth segment of the documentary that responded to these changes, by my advisor, Dr. Bethany Cutts at NCSU. The hypothesis of this study is to film a roundtable discussion for identifying key themes and directions toward racial justice by environmental organizations who in turn, can work towards environmental justice in Milwaukee. We used qualitative methods to analyze recorded audio and video and to construct a documentary to capture and communicate essential themes expressed by participants of a roundtable organized. As the roundtable participants discussed how to best explain to youth of color why environment is not just a white people issue, they revealed community resources for empowering youth of color and structural reasons that environmental organizations may sometimes use a definition of environment that inadvertently excludes people of color. By creating this fourth installment of the documentary, we highlight the work communities are doing to find solutions to long-standing environmental injustices. While the particular lessons benefit strides toward environmental justice in Milwaukee, the methods offer lessons to other communities where long legacies of racial segregation need to be acknowledged in the context of making progress toward sustainability goals.
References:
Cumming, G. &, & Norwood, C (2012). The Community Voice Method: Using Participatory Research and Filmmaking to Foster Dialog about Changing Landscapes, Landscape and Urban Planning. 105(4), 434-333. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2012.01.018
Funder Acknowledgement(s): I thank Dr. Shobha Sriharan, Department of Agriculture, Virginia State University for serving as my faculty advisor. I also thank Dr. Stacy Nelson and Dr. Bethany Cutts, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, N.C., for providing the guidance during my summer internship at NCSU. I also thank the funding agency, National Science Foundation for providing funding during my internship (NSF HBCU-UP (Award No. 1649937)
Faculty Advisor: Shobha Shobha, ssriharan@vsu.edu
Role: I Demmetri Smith, did the abstract.