Join us for a unique evening of genuine dialogue and collective reflection as we explore the ideas of scientist and author Dr Fernando Racimo in a participatory setting. Together, we’ll confront urgent questions of climate change, authoritarianism, institutional complicity and resistance. We will explore how to build collective power and how the relationship between science and activism is shifting. How do scientist-activists come to change themselves even as they try to change the world around them? And how are academic institutions entangled in oppressive systems, and how can they be transformed from the bottom up?
About the programme
In the face of climate breakdown and rising authoritarianism, as more people are silenced for speaking truth to power, how can we build collective counter-power? How do we nurture and strengthen movements to face the ongoing and coming storms? This evening, dr. Fernando Racimo will present his book Science in Resistance, which offers a first-person account of Scientist Rebellion, a global movement of scientists and scholars rising up for climate and social justice. Drawing on his own experiences in activism, along with interviews of scientist-activists and research on direct action and resistance, Racimo explores the challenges academics face when taking a taking a stand against systems of oppression.
What does it mean for scientists to leave the comfort of the ivory tower, and step out into the streets; becoming active participants in the urgently needed transformation of our societies? How they change themselves as they work to change the world? How are academic institutions today complicit in exploitative and extractive systems, and how they could be transformed from the bottom-up, to become institutions that foster social and ecological well-being instead?
We’ll discuss this together in the form of a collective conversation, not a formal lecture. Participants are invited to share their own knowledge, experiences, and ideas on the topics of the book. This evening is about sparking an open conversation where everyone can share their honest opinions, present projects, ask questions, or express doubts or fears. It’s a chance to interact and exchange with Racimo and each other. The discussion will be guided to keep us on track while allowing the conversation to flow naturally. This night is an opportunity for talking, sharing, and interaction, or simply listening and observing the dialogue as it unfolds.
About the speaker
Fernando Racimo is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Racimo is originally trained as an evolutionary geneticist, currently he is largely working on research and teaching related to degrowth, decolonization and socio-ecological transformation. He is an active member in various movements and collectives advocating for such a transformation, including Scientist Rebellion and Academics for Palestine.
In April 2022, hundreds of scientists rose in civil disobedience, breaking the law in more than twenty-eight countries. Risking arrest, they glued their hands to roads, blocked government and corporate buildings, and chained themselves to the White House fence. In Science in Resistance, Fernando Racimo provides a first-person account of the Scientist Rebellion, a growing international movement of researchers stepping beyond conventional roles to alert the public about the need for action in the climate emergency.
Scientist Rebellion is an international movement of scientists and academics who are extremely concerned about the climate and ecological crisis and who believe that civil disobedience by scientists can help press for urgent climate action.
