Environmental justice, the theme of the 2019 iSEE Congress, began as a social movement two decades ago, and is now a keystone concept driving the broader sustainability project. Simultaneously representing a field of scholarship, political agenda, and framework for understanding our fast-changing world, the marriage of social justice and sustainability has moved beyond its initial focus on the inequitable distribution of environmental burdens to incorporate a range of pressing social and ecological issues — Black Lives Matter, indigenous rights, climate change, and biodiversity loss, to name just a few — within a unifying framework that strives to realize sustainable justice for all.

But as human rights advocates know, the concept of justice can be defined in multiple ways, and its implementation into policy, environmental law, ecological design and planning, not to mention global trade, faces great challenges. For example: which social dimension to prioritize — race, class, gender, or age? How to balance the costs of conservation and resilience with poverty alleviation? And what is the role of biophysical sciences, engineering, law, and other academic disciplines in advancing the goals of sustainability justice?

Over two days, “Sustainability Justice” will bring together a diverse group of researchers, educators, journalists, and activists to discuss these urgent questions. The goals of the Congress are to introduce the Illinois campus and community to cutting-edge issues surrounding sustainability and social justice, to build bridges across different approaches, disciplines and geographies, and to chart new directions toward a sustainable, and just, future.