Re-Valuing the Ocean is a two-day symposium connecting prominent ocean thinkers across multiple disciplines. Participants will spotlight the oceans’ centrality to global well-being, examine the ocean as a cultural object, and illuminate the oceans’ importance for both academic and popular audiences.

Utah is the perfect place to host an interdisciplinary conversation about the oceans. The Mountain West depends on the oceans for its weather, for its oxygen, for its CO2 uptake and for its dinner. At the same time, Utah is important to the world’s oceans because we are burning the coal that acidifies the reefs, eating the fish that are trawled there, importing our goods across the Pacific, and – now -- joining the conversation about ocean ecology.

Keynote Speaker

Jeremy B.C. Jackson is an emeritus professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and senior scientist emeritus at the Smithsonian. His books include Breakpoint: Reckoning with America’s Environmental CrisesandShifting Baselines: The Past and the Future of Ocean Fisheries.
He will deliver the public keynote address  "Humanity's Changing Relationship to the Ocean" at 6:30p.m. at Natural History Museum of Utah, 5th Fl.

Guest Speakers

• Maxine Burkett, University of Hawaii, Professor of Law, Director of the Institute for Climate and Peace.

• Margaret Cohen, Stanford University, Hammond Professor of French, Director of the Center for Study of the Novel. Her books include The Novel and the SeaandThe Sentimental Education of the Novel
  
• Kate Davies, Social Scientist, New Zealand's National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA)

• Chris Finlayson, Member of Parliament, Attorney General, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, New Zealand.

• Steve Mentz , St John’s University, NY, Professor of English. His books include Shipwreck Modernity and At the Bottom of Shakespeare’s Ocean.

• Joshua Reid, University of Washington, Professor of History. His books include The Sea is My Country: The Maritime Worlds of the Makahs.

• Tierney Thys, National Geographic Explorer and California Academy of Sciences.

University of Utah Participants

• Hokulani Aikau, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies, University of Utah
• Brenda Bowen, Director, Global Change and Sustainability Center, Associate Professor, Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah
• Robin Craig, James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah
• Jeffrey McCarthy, Director, Environmental Humanities Graduate Program, Professor, Honors College, University of Utah
• Thomas Michael Swensen, Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies, University of Utah

Schedule

Please contact Jeffrey McCarthy 801-585-7052 or Robin Craig 801-585-8228 with questions. Re-Valuing the Ocean is sponsored by S.J. Quinney College of Law, Environmental Humanities Graduate Program with generous support from Global Change and Sustainability Center, and Natural History Museum of Utah.