University of Oregon: Just Futures Institute forum will explore the future of work

The UO’s Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute will host a symposium this month bringing together community partners and faculty members, staff, students from Whitman College, the University of Idaho-Moscow, Heritage University and the University of Oregon.

“Futures of Work: Climate and Lifeways in the Pacific Northwest” will be held Thursday, Nov. 17, and Friday, Nov. 18, from 9:30 to 5 p.m. in room 203 and 403 of the Ford Alumni Center. It will feature two keynote speakers:

Juliet Schor, economist and sociologist at Boston College and this year’s Wayne Morse Chair. Her work focuses on work, consumption and climate change.
Saket Soni, executive director of Resilience Force and author of the forthcoming book “The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America.”
A range of panel speakers from the community and higher education will present their research and projects, with time at the end of each session for questions and open conversation. In addition to panel presentations, two interactive site visits will showcase the UO as a present and future workplace: the Millrace and the Zero Waste program.

“This symposium gives us all the opportunity to continue supporting the essential workers who hold our worlds together and to make their labors central to any project related to sustainability,” said Stephanie LeMenager, co-principal investigator for the institute and co-director of the Center for Environmental Futures. “COVID-19 may be dwindling, but its social and environmental lessons ought to remain with us.”