Nominated by member scholarly associations of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the 2022 Congress Graduate Merit Awards recognize exceptional graduate students who will be presenting their work at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Tell us about yourself.
Emilia just graduated this winter from her master’s and is now in her first year of her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies at Queen's University. Her research is focused on the youth climate movement in Canada. She was inspired to research this after being an environmental activist herself.
At which conference(s) will you be presenting and/or attending?
2022 Environmental Studies Association of Canada Annual Conference
What is the title of your Congress 2022 presentation?
Change is Coming, Whether You Like It or Not: Exploring the Young Climate Movement in Canada
How would you describe the research you will be presenting at Congress 2022?
While young climate activists have become more present in popular media, their voices are still largely absent from the climate change literature. Emilia’s research explores the movement on an organizational scale to determine some of the methods, objectives, and values of organizations in the youth climate movement in Canada by talking to a variety of different organizations. The goal is to determine what methods youth activist view as politically effective and feasible by interviewing the youth themselves to get a better understanding of the movement in Canada.
How does the research you will be presenting connect with the Congress 2022 theme, Transitions?
This research relates to the theme transitions in three ways. First, youth as a stage of development is a time of major transition. Youth are transitioning between childhood and adulthood and understanding the challenges that come with that transition is important to understanding the youth climate movement. Second, what many of these youth are demanding is societal transitions including transitioning away from fossil fuels, transitioning funds away from carbon-intensive companies, transitioning to more climate just policies and so forth. Lastly, as all parts of society in the last two years, the youth climate movement has had to go through transitions to remain active during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the youth climate movement is in large characterized by transitions, making this year’s theme a very interesting one for this topic.
Share your hopes for Congress 2022.
My hope for Congress 2022 is to meet new people in the field and learn from all the other amazing presentations.