Rob Nixon on Slow Violence and Climate Justice

Evenings with an Author hosted scholar Rob Nixon in conversation with Alice McCrum. Filmed on 14/09/2022 with a live audience on Zoom.

What aspects of the climate crisis are happening gradually and invisibly all around us, and how can we fight this? Princeton professor Rob Nixon speaks on his theory of 'slow violence' and environmental justice.

From flooded Kentucky streets to Portugal engulfed in flames, images of the climate crisis are used to underscore its urgency and communicate the scale of its devastation. For Princeton scholar Rob Nixon, however, of equal importance are the parts of climate change that are largely invisible and unspectacular. In his seminal 2011 work Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, Nixon encourages us to look at gradual processes of environmental harm which lead to catastrophic events. When we consider the unseen alongside the seen, new strategies for the fight against climate change emerge, and environmental justice becomes a more attainable goal.

About the speaker:

Rob Nixon is the Princeton Department of English Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in the Humanities and the Environment. He is the author of four books and a frequent contributor to the New York Times. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor was named a 2012 American Book Award winner and Choice outstanding book of 2011.

Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.