{"id":233,"date":"2025-07-02T19:21:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T19:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/humanities-for-the-environment\/?post_type=project&p=233"},"modified":"2026-02-20T20:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T20:34:39","slug":"storying-just-futures","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/humanities-for-the-environment\/?project=storying-just-futures","title":{"rendered":"Storying Just Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stories have been integral to the human experience for millenia. At Arizona State University, Storying Just Futures (SJF)  is inviting the next generation of students and youth community leaders to \u201cstory,\u201d or create\/design, just, equitable, and compassionate futures. Reflecting the goals of ASU\u2019s Changing Futures campaign<\/strong>, the project seeks to inspire tomorrow\u2019s changemakers, strengthen community resilience, and reshape humanity\u2019s relationship with the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funded by Create the Change (CTC)<\/a>, which \u201cfocuses on the moral, economic, and cultural challenges to planetary health, Storying Just Futures was originally planned as a project of Humanities for the Environment\u2019s North American Observatory.  Titled \u201cHumanities for Just Energy Transition\u201d or H4JET, the project launched in 2022 and convened ASU\u2019s environmental justice experts from the humanities and social sciences with scientists working with ASU\u2019s Lightworks and the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions (CNCE) on grants shaped by the federal government\u2019s Justice40 framework. Justice40 ensured that 40 percent of the benefits from federal climate and infrastructure investments would reach historically marginalized communities. H4JET contributed to these grants by integrating humanities faculty, methodologies and knowledges into grants focused on decarbonization and community benefits planning. Joni Adamson and Sreya Ann Oommen were leading these efforts.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the federal government paused two successful grants in January 2025, Adamson and Oommen began working to \u201cre-story\u201d and retitle their efforts to assist faculty, graduate students and early career faculty whose aspirations and goals were impacted by the dramatic changes in the funding and political landscapes. Their aim was to address the wellbeing of communities\u2013both inside and outside of academia\u2013and to empower new generations of youth to \u201cre-story\u201d and redirect their own efforts on behalf of human and planetary justice and flourishing. They teamed up with energy justice professor Jennifer Richter <\/a>and gender studies professor Indulata Prasad<\/a> to explore how they could pivot previous environmental justice goals toward local communities through the Local to Global Justice Festival which has been operating at ASU for 25 years. They also began working with Dr. Eduari Navarro-Perez<\/a> who co-leads Earth Systems Science for the Anthropocene<\/a> (ESSA) with Professor Nancy Grimm. ESSA is designed to empower interdisciplinary graduate students focused on environmental approaches. The project is collaborating with Ed Finn<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>Ruth Wylie<\/strong> at the Center for Science and Imagination <\/a>whose work in speculative storytelling and design fiction informs SJF\u2019s integration of creative narrative and futures thinking with environmental and social research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storying Just Futures aspires NOT to retreat in the face of challenges. On the contrary, we are spending the year meeting, learning, planning, and co-designing.  A Spring 2026 Convergence will bring all participants together to re-tell, recount, and anticipate our futures anew. We will share what we have achieved over the course of the year as we seek to imagine and create equitable and just futures.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Events: <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n