Institute for Social Justice
Ecological justice
Our approach is based upon the understanding that environmental issues and social justice are interconnected.
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Ecological justice is the recognition that social justice and environmental issues are tightly intertwined – that the most vulnerable in society suffer the first and worst consequences of climate change and environmental degradation.
Therefore the solutions too need to be intertwined, learning from multiple disciplines, cultures and forms of knowledge.
Current projects
Acquisitions in an altered landscape
This 18-month (April 2025 – Sep 2026) project mobilises Dr Vicki Pugh as a curatorial researcher, funded by educational charity The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
The project engages with an unresearched, unseen collection of local prints held at The Bowes Museum to explore the potential of co-curating place-based collections. The Museum was founded on extractivist wealth from coal and lead mining that profoundly shaped the region’s landscape and communities. The historical pursuits of industrial progress and profit have lasting imprints on the landscape, with social and environmental consequences observable today.
The project seeks new narratives that interweave the physical (sites of extractivist exploitation) and the representational (collection). The objective is to invigorate discussion and knowledge about the intersection of art, place, people and sustainability, and explore the collection’s potential for inciting action around climate justice.
Living Lab
Living Lab is an interdisciplinary network in which university students and staff collaborate with local organisations and policymakers to investigate and tackle real-life local problems.
For our first Living Lab, students and staff from 9 different subjects collaborated to investigate local air quality, culminating in a public festival in which they shared their proposed solutions with policymakers and the public.
Ecological Justice Research Group
The Ecological Justice Research Group (EJRG) is an energetic, supportive and diverse group of staff and postgraduate researchers, representing all 5 of the University’s academic schools and several professional services departments.
The group is interested in community and youth activism, ecological anxiety, the climate movement and arts/science collaboration in exploring sustainable futures.
Archived projects
Sustainability Stories
Investigating the UK creative industry and communication of sustainability
Sustainability Stories explores how professional communicators within the creative sector can advance public knowledge about sustainability and climate change challenges through the stories they develop.
Lead by Dr Alexandra Dales, the team developed a theorised, structured framework for communicators to utilise when seeking to unpack climate and societal sustainability issues, or to convey to audiences progressive and alternate future pathways for combating the climate emergency. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through XR Stories 'Creative Media Labs: Innovations in Screen Storytelling in the Age of Interactivity and Immersion' at the University of York.
Suitcase Stories
The Suitcase Stories project explores climate adaptation through participatory storytelling with young people.
It is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded public engagement project that used storytelling to explore climate adaptation with young people.
