Since 2010, the SARAS Institute has been organizing a series of public conferences where experts, opinion makers, and national and international professionals from the academia come together.

This year’s conference will aim to facilitate intercultural dialogues, with alternative thinking on environmental problems that affect contemporary societies, including an ecological perspective in the study of Latin American literature, cinema and art.

The seventh SARAS 2017 Public Conference will be entitled “Environmental Humanities for the 21st Century”, in reference to the developing approach in European countries and the U.S.. The name comes from the growing consensus among humanists, natural and social scientists, that scientific and economic arguments are not enough to bring about changes in decision making on environmental issues. On the contrary, it is assumed that the influence of beliefs, values ​​and aesthetics in conflicts and environmental changes is not yet sufficiently understood.

Along these lines, “Environmental Humanities for the 21st Century” will bring together artistic creations with some kind of ecological or environmental vocation, and fields of study such as literary eco-criticism, environmental philosophy, environmental history, eco-theology, and new political philosophies. Humanists, writers, national and international natural and social sciences professionals will be present, and it will be a South American meeting point for publicly showing the main trends in this field.

The inaugural conference will be conducted by Eduardo Gudynas, executive secretary of the Latin American Center for Social Ecology (CLAES), professor at several Latin American, European and North American universities, author of numerous publications, and member since 2010 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The event will also include the presence of Uruguayan writers Marciano Durán (Maldonado), Virginia Lucas (Montevideo), Ana Solari (Montevideo) and Sebastián Rivero (Colonia).

The international speakers include: Mark Anderson (University of Georgia), Zelia Bora (Universidade Federal de Paraiba, Brasil ), Andrea Casals (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Mirian Carballo (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), George Handley (Brigham Young University), Gisella Heffes (Rice University), Malcolm McNee (Smith College), Marcela Petinarolli, (Rhodes College), Rachel Price (Princeton University), Víctor Vich (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), Patricia Vieira (Georgetown University), Jesse Kercheval (University of Wisconsin – SARAS Institute) and Jorge Marcone ( Rutgers University – SARAS Institute).

The SARAS Institute was designed to generate critical points of view to collaborate with the construction of sustainable futures for South America, through the use of innovative approaches, the combination of disciplinary domains (social, natural, exact sciences), diverse knowledge, and art and science interaction. In line with this, SARAS is committed to the development, visibility and recognition of Environmental Humanities as a key way of thinking to advance in the analysis and understanding of environmental governance problems, sustainable resource management, among others.