Imagining Abolition Ecofeminism(s)

Many feminist critics argue that the corporate-led, privatized and individualistic ‘green economy’ basically serves to sustain global capitalism’s pro-growth agenda while it reproduces and leaves intact deep-rooted colonialist relationships. It has not inaugurated a ‘just transition’ to a new economy of care that challenges legacies of social and environmental injustices.

In this Development Research Seminar, Professor Di Chiro discusses approaches to community-based research and pedagogy that integrate abolition feminisms and anti/de-colonial and environmental justice activism with the aim of imagining and practicing more just and care-based forms of ‘sustainability’ in the face of the growing, and interconnected crises of poverty, dispossession and climate disruption.

About the speaker

Giovanna Di Chiro is Professor of Environmental Studies at Swarthmore College where teaches courses on environmental justice theory, action research methods, ecofeminism(s), and community sustainability.

She is a co-founder and faculty partner with Serenity Soular, a campus-community collaborative in North Philadelphia working to build community and worker-owned solar energy cooperatives, to train local youth in solar systems installation, and to provide affordable rooftop solar for low-income residents.

Formerly, Di Chiro was a policy advisor with Nuestras Raíces (our roots), a community organization that focuses on urban agriculture, food justice, and resiliency in the Puerto Rican/Latinx communities of Holyoke, Massachusetts.  

Di Chiro has published widely on the intersections of environmental science, policy, and activism addressing issues of human rights, food security, and environmental and climate justice.