Facing Climates of Inequality After Dorian

Facing Climates of Inequality After Dorian project is the UB-North's contribution to the Climates of Inequality, an international travelling exhibit in partnership with the Humanities Action Lab at Rutgers University-Newark and 22 other partnering institutions. This exhibit presents stories of climate and environmental justice that emerge from local, community-based research projects by students in collaboration with local NGOs, Waterkeepers Bahamas and the Bahamas National Trust.

Our project explores and documents the impact that Hurricane Dorian had on our island of Grand Bahama and The Bahamas and the global and local inequalities at the root of the problem. Research questions engage the increasing threats that global climate change pose to our archipelagic nation and potential solutions that promote economic and environmental sustainability as well as equity and justice for all its inhabitants.

Our local exhibit will be launched at the University of The Bahamas-North's Sustainable Grand Bahama 2020 Conference focusing on “Hurricane Dorian: Reflecting, Reimagining, Rebuilding" (CFP). The SGBC 2020 will be held at the Pelican Bay Hotel in Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama, March 5-7, 2020. Our opening ceremony for the Climates of Inequality in The Bahamas After Dorian Exhibit will be at 5:00 -6:00 pm (EST) on March 5th.

UB-North Climates of Inequality After Dorian Project Team

Project Director:

Dr. Ian Strachan, Vice President, UB-North (ian.strachan@ub.edu.bs)

Facilitators:

  • Dr. Sally Everson, Assistant Professor, English Studies at UB-North (sally.everson@ub.edu.bs)

  • Ms. Juliet Glenn-Callender, UB-North Librarian (juliet.callender@ub.edu.bs)

  • Dr. Andrew Moxey, Professor, Chemistry (andrew.moxey@ub.edu.bs)

  • Dr. Ian Strachan, Associate Professor, English Studies (ian.strachan@ub.edu.bs)

  • Dr. Ian Anthony Bethell-Bennett, Assistant Professor, English Studies (Oakes Field campus) (ian.bennett@ub.edu.bs)

Structure of partnership:

Project Proposal:


Grand Bahama Oral History and Memory Digital Collection

Lead: Dr. Ian Strachan

Fall 2019 Course: SOCI 302 Bahamian Society & Culture

We propose to develop a Digital Collection for Oral History Interviews of Survivors of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas (Grand Bahama island). This collection aims to be an open access digital archive of oral history narratives of and reflections on the passing of Dorian in September 2019, and its local impact. These interviews will allow us to preserve the accounts of surviving this historical storm within the national cultural memory. The collection can be used as an open educational resource about Hurricane Dorian and climate change in The Bahamas and the region, and provide a meaningful source of information for public engagement on the topics. Collecting stories of survival in the face of a continuing threat of intensifying hurricanes will safeguard the knowledge needed for community resilience and sustainability.

Dr. Strachan will lead groups from his course, SOCI 302 Bahamian Society & Culture, to conduct video interviews from Grand Bahamians about their experiences in Dorian .

Methodology: Student groups from the course will conduct interviews using video and audio recording equipment and upload the Video interviews to a UB-North / project YouTube channel. In collaboration with Ms. Juliet Glenn-Callender, UB-North Librarian, future project teams will select and prepare the videos to be deposited in the Digital Library of the Caribbean, and the UB institutional repository (if/when it is operational). Digital exhibits of the videos may also be prepared on a UB-North Omeka S site which is under construction. The methodology for collection, format, processing (transcription, metadata) and preservation of all video files).

Selected interviews and items will be incorporated into the Local Exhibit on Climates of Inequality in The Bahamas targeting a local launch date for 5-6 March 2020, and prepare our Chapter contribution for the international travelling Exhibit Climates of Inequalities Exhibit, which will be scheduled to travel to Freeport, GB at a later point in 2020-2021.

Undergraduate Community-Based Research Writing Projects

Lead: Dr. Sally Everson

Fall 2019 Course: ENGL 119/120 (2 sections each)

We propose to generate new knowledge and information about the impact of Hurricane Dorian on the northern Bahamas and its linkages to global inequalities. This will be presented in poster sessions and reports to be used for public presentations at the Sustainable Grand Bahama conference and the local exhibit on Climates of Inequality and the local chapter for the travelling exhibit. A project site is under construction at Climates of Inequality in The Bahamas.

Methodology: Dr. Everson will lead groups of students in ENGL119/120 (first year composition) using a community-based writing approach to investigate the question: how are the northern Bahamas negatively affected by the global inequalities of the impacts of climate change, as well as work on risk assessments or vulnerabilities, mitigation and adaptation? Students will find, evaluate and use secondary sources about the environmental issues related to global inequalities and gather primary sources through interviews, community group discussions, news and other reports, and direct observation.

The students will ask and attempt to find answers to how we can make Grand Bahama, the Abacos and The Bahamas in general more sustainable for the majority of its people in the face of these global inequalities. Threats of intensification of storms and surges, encroaching sea on inhabited areas, salt water intrusion in aquifers, death of coral reefs and sea grass beds, and environmental contamination by industrial activities and others are well known in an area with historical and cultural continuities with the Caribbean. Despite irrefutable evidence of human-caused global warming leading to more intense hurricanes and these other impacts in the region, how much is being done that can be done to protect the island inhabitants? Students will document impacts of Dorian on various types of communities in Grand Bahama that may be linked to global inequalities, and look for ways these might be solved through community-based leadership. These projects ultimately aim to document Grand Bahamians' and Abaconians' preparation and survival strategies outside of official "top-down" approaches that can also serve to counter inaccurate media portrayal as helpless victims.

Fall 2020 Courses:

ENGL 120 (2 sections):

ENGL 300 (2 sections):

Dr. Bethell-Bennett's ENGL 300 section in Oaks Field campus will collaborate with Dr. Everson's section to gather the collected information (text, video, photos, data) to develop the text, images and digital local chapter contribution to the Climates of Inequality Travelling exhibit. This material will be delivered to HAL at end of the AY 2019-2020.

Undergraduate Research Projects

Lead: Dr. Andrew Moxey

Fall 2019 Course:

Students of Biology-Chemistry in extracurricular activities will gather secondary local information about the status of the East End pine forest on Grand Bahama impacted by Hurricane Dorian's passing in September 2019. This includes information about the oil spill from the destruction of the Equinor/Statoil Storage Facility in High Rock .