Dear SEI community,

SEI’s crucial work with disaster-impacted communities, and the central role of those communities in the design of resilience and adaptation to climate change were highlighted in March. We held the annual Iain McCalman lecture, SEI’s flagship event. This year’s fantastic and timely lecture, Communities in an era of compounding disasters: stories of hope from the Northern Rivers, was delivered by Dr Rebecca McNaught. If you weren’t able to join us on the night, you can read the lecture and listen to the podcast online.

We engaged communities neighbouring the University of Sydney’s Camperdown and Westmead campuses to explore how universities can harness their resources to support community-based resilience and adaptation, in line with our longstanding commitment to centring communities’ experiences. This project, in partnership with the Sydney Policy Lab, resulted in the Becoming Familiar Faces: How Universities Can Become Allies in Community-Based Responses to Climate Disasters report, launched recently.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Prof Thom van Dooren’s BBVA Biophilia Award for Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences with a multidisciplinary panel of collaborators exploring the importance of storytelling in understanding and addressing our ecological crisis. You can listen to the recording of that conversation on the SEI podcast. SEI is thrilled to see this outstanding and world-leading work in environmental humanities recognised with such a prestigious award.

We also continued to further our expertise and reputation in environmental and climate justice with a new publication led by an SEI-based team, the final paper from a major ARC-funded global project. Realising Environmental Justice: Strategy and Tactics for Transformation, based on a global survey of academics and activists, explores the key strategies, barriers and approaches shaping efforts to achieve transformative environmental and climate justice. You can read more about the paper, as well as an overview of all of the academic outputs from the project, on the SEI blog.

This year will be one of significant change for SEI, which we will share and reflect upon in the coming months. Stay tuned for further activities, reports, and impact news from SEI, and thanks, as always, for your ongoing support. We look forward to engaging with you in our ongoing work dedicated to examining the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss and, crucially, exploring just and sustainable transitions and transformations.