On Tuesday March 4th, please join us for a conversation with Claudia Gimena Roa Avendaño, Diana Alexandra Bernal Arias, and Diana Figueroa moderated by Mijin Cha. Speakers will discuss Colombia’s community-led movement for a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards agrobiodiversity, agroecology and community-led stewardship.

Claudia Gimena Roa Avendaño is a Colombian human rights and environmental activist. Author of several books and articles, she works with “Colectivo de Reservas Campesinas y Comunitarias de Santander” and “Fundaexpresión” for the rights of Mother Earth, for women’s rights, and water rights.  

Diana Alexandra Bernal Arias is an environmentalist with expertise in Southern Environmental Thought and Brazilian Humanist Geography. She is currently completing a postdoc investigating how wind energy transition policies affect the Wayúu people in La Guajira, Colombia.

Diana Carolina Figueroa holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from the National University of Colombia, Bogotá and a Master’s Degree in early childhood education and development from The International Center for Education and Human Development (CINDE). She is an expert in peace-building pedagogies and since 2020, she has worked at the Otra Escuela Corporation developing and facilitating training processes in human rights and methodologies for the culture of cooperation through art and play.

J. Mijin Cha is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also a Fellow at Cornell University’s Climate Jobs Institute, a Fellow at the Climate and Community Project, and a member of the Just Transition Listening Project research team.

This event is organized in collaboration with Carolina Caycedo as part of An Aesthetics of Resilience.

Image: Carolina Caycedo, Lithium Intensive, 2022. Paper, colored pencil. 36.25 x 50 in. Collection Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Paul Salveson