Degrowth Discussion Circles

Degrowth, Transportation, and URBAN Planning

Joining us will be:

Kamrie Holms (she/her) - Kamrie is a Social-Ecological Economist, where she explores the connections between political, economic, ecological and social systems. She has done various work within the Degrowth movement in Europe. Most recently, she wrote her master’s thesis on the interconnections between Degrowth and Transportation - giving her the passion to reshape cities for the social-ecological transformation.

Lili Rudis (bio coming)

Michael Podgers (He/Him) - Michael grew up on Chicago’s Northwest Side and has lived in the city his entire life with the exception of his college years in Madison, WI and a year each in Freiburg, Germany and Vienna, Austria. Michael has been passionate about sustainable mobility and equitable transportation since high school when he started biking 5 miles to Lane Tech High School. He is eager to help build a grassroots movement for people-centered mobility in Chicago. Michael has a master’s in urban planning and policy and currently works in housing administration and as a bartender.

Degrowth AND FEMINISMS

Joining us will be:

Alice Dal Gobbo: Alice is assistant professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento. Her work, inspired by a feminist and decolonial political ecology, focuses on the study of everyday life and socio-technical innovations in the context of the multiple crises of the present. Apart from her theoretical interests in her field of study, her substantive work focuses on ecological transitions in energy and food, in a constant dialogue between academia and social movements. She also pursues a methodological reflection on the transformation of traditional social science research tools.

Sophia Sanniti: Sophia is currently a Research Associate for the World Resources Institute's Faith and Sustainability Initiative where she explores the values, practices, and assets of faith actors to enable capacity for community-driven solutions to the climate crisis. She completed her PhD at the University of Waterloo (Canada) where she used the COVID-19 lockdown as a case study for household economic transformations during times of disruption. Following this, Sophia completed a research internship at the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development where she applied science-based principles of sustainability to the social teachings of the Catholic Church. She has been an active member and advisor to the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics (CANSEE) for the past six years, and was one of five women elected globally for the International Society for Ecological Economics this past January. Sophia has a proven track record for advancing ecological economic research principles in practice, holding leadership positions in several regional and national institutions, and building meaningful and lasting collaborations with community partners – all central tenets of the transdisciplinary field. 

Degrowth AND TECHNOLOGY

Joining us will be:

Vasilis Kostakis (he/him) - Vasilis Kostakis is Professor at TalTech, Estonia, and Faculty Associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center. He is also the Founder of the P2P Lab. Vasilis studies the convergence of the digital commons with local manufacturing technologies. While at Harvard, he focuses on how to create a sustainable economy based on locally productive communities that are digitally interconnected. He is also the director of TheOtherSchool.art science popularization project.

John Mulrow (he/him) - John Mulrow is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University in central Indiana, USA. The original caretakers of this land include the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Lenape (Delaware), Myaamia (Miami), and Shawnee People. John’s research group conducts physical, chemical, and engineering-based investigations of eco-claims made by corporations and governments. He is a co-president of DegrowUS, a professional water well driller, a US Army veteran, a dad, and a composter of things.

Degrowth AND Well-being economy

Joining us will be:

Jack Hammond (he/him), Jack is a professor of sociology (recently retired) at Hunter College
and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He specializes in environmental
sociology, development, and social and economic inequality, and how they all (taken together)
bear on social justice.

Stella McShera (she/her),  Stella started out her career in fashion, went on to study
neuroscience and then founded a business incubator. Her passion for understanding human
behavior and community connections has been the common thread. Equality and
sustainability has played a central role throughout Stella's career and she feels lucky to have
stumbled upon the Masters in Degrowth from UAB for her next phase. She is currently using
her experience in fashion, behavior and business to launch a pilot program that addresses all
three aspects to combat the ecological and social injustices in the clothing industry. The
Clothing Library launches Dec 1, 2023.