UHD will celebrate Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, with a special edition of the President’s Lecture Series featuring an expert panel on “Sustainability Transitions in the Anthropocene” at 11:30 a.m. in Fondren Commons, College of Sciences and Technology Building.
Rice University anthropology professors Dominic Boyer and Cymene Howe (co-hosts of the podcast, Cultures of Energy) and designer, professor, and entrepreneur Nathan Shedroff will discuss cultural and systemic pathways toward more just and resilient futures. The panel will share their interdisciplinary perspectives at the intersection of anthropology, storytelling, design, technology, and living systems.
About Our Panelists
A 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Dominic Boyer, Professor of Anthropology at Rice University, is a cultural anthropologist, media maker, and co-founder of the field of Energy Humanities. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Rice Sustainability Institute and co-directs Rice’s Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience (CFAR) and the Social Design Lab. His work bridges energy systems, media, and climate futures through research, storytelling, and public engagement.
Cymene Howe, Professor of Anthropology at Rice University, is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the anthropology of climate change, environmental inequalities, and the social dimensions of sustainability. Her work offers critical insight into how climate futures are shaped by power, culture, and lived experience across global contexts.
Nathan Shedroff, Chair of the groundbreaking Design MBA programs in design strategy at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, is a pioneer in Experience Design, Interaction Design, and Information Design. He is a serial entrepreneur, who researches, speaks, and teaches internationally about strategic innovation, systems thinking, sustainability, and generative leadership. He has authored more than ten books, including “A Whole New Strategy,” as well as “Blindspot,” “Design is the Solution,” “Design Strategy in Action,” “Make It So,” and “Experience Design 1.1.”