The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) is pleased to announce the Georg Arnhold International Summer Conference, which will take place online from 23 to 27 August 2021. The Summer Conference will explore aspects and topics related to the environmental crisis and education.
The potentially grave consequences of humankind’s destruction of intact eco-systems and of climate change are currently being dramatically illustrated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Aside from the acute threat currently provided by the virus, climate change is the biggest challenge facing the global community in the twenty-first century.
The negative effects of climate change not only fundamentally challenge our lifestyles but also call our development and growth paradigms into question, especially in countries in the global north, which are the primary polluters. The causes and consequences of climate change are deeply intertwined with global patterns of inequality, in which climate change has a multiplier effect on existing vulnerabilities, particularly in the global south. The interplay between climate change, conflict, poverty, hunger and migration lead to ever more complex emergencies. While industrialised nations are able to take measures to counteract the ramifications, poorer countries or regions already destabilised by crises are more acutely affected, and particularly populations who were already vulnerable such as old people, women, children and those affected by poverty. The weakest and most at risk people, particularly those in the global south, carry the heaviest burden of the effects of climate change despite currently and historically having contributed least to its root causes.
Despite the signing of numerous international climate agreements and national action plans to mitigate the changes to the climate and to minimise the susceptibility of countries to the negative effects, it has become clear that the global community is still resisting fully committing to the measures necessary to prevent and attenuate the consequences of climate change. While governments and companies are on the front line, each of us as individuals and members of society must also urgently change our behaviour in order to more quickly implement and realise the measures, and redefine our relationship with the environment in order to effect a transformation of the system and bring about the fundamental changes so urgently required.
One way of realising such change is to use education to better equip future generations to address current and future challenges. Alongside government or economic initiatives and civil projects, education plays an important role in bringing about the political and economic transformation necessary to create ecologically sustainable societies. Education shapes values and perspectives, and helps develop abilities, concepts and tools that can be used to critically reflect upon current lifestyles and identify political, social and ecological courses of action.
Against this background, this year’s Summer Conference will address important questions and topics related to education in the face of the environmental crisis. The Georg Arnhold Program on Education for Sustainable Peace focuses on content, educational media and curricula for secondary schools.
The GEI therefore invites submission of original contributions to the Summer Conference that draw upon current theories and innovative methods, in a range of contexts, to illuminate the different aspects and challenges facing education for sustainable development, particularly in the most severely affected regions.
HOW TO APPLY
The Summer Conference primarily welcomes applications from academic experts, post-doctoral scholars and doctoral candidates from the humanities and social sciences, particularly education, history, political sciences, sociology, law, anthropology, and psychology. Practitioners working for international organizations and NGOs in the relevant fields are also welcome to apply. Applications from students enrolled in a master’s program and recent graduates with a master’s degree will be considered in exceptional cases.
The GEI invites suitable applicants to complete and submit an application form, which can be downloaded at our website: http://www.gei.de/en/fellowships/georg-arnhold-program/summer-conference.html
The deadline for completed applications is May 15, 2021.