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Mindmapping Climate Change and Research Intersections Symposium - Jennifer Veilleux
We had an amazing turnout for the Mindmapping Climate Change and Research Intersections Symposium on September 26, 2024. Thank you again to those who took the time to come and participate!
Jennifer Veilleux, PhD, spoke about her role in the Sector Plan (Figure 1) for Spatial Issues. She centers climate change, water, communities, & art based on her previous research and work experiences.
She then introduced multidimensional research methods and frameworks (Figure 2) that she employs to create a comprehensive project. She gave examples of how these interdisciplinary approaches worked in previous research to describe and to analyze complex challenges in water security and equity.
Finally, Jennifer shared designs for four general research project themes she intends to build within the Sector Plan Spatial Issues framework during her time at WUR.
An example of the design for one of the project groupings, Art of Climate Change suggests discreet ideas about the direction of the work (Figure 4).
Visual communication is a powerful tool for effectively engaging, sometimes emotionally evoking, an audience, telling stories, and creating intrigue.
The first participatory activity was to find and share a photograph about climate change. The sharing was done with another person in the room and then through a webplatform to the entire room. This exercise demonstrated diversity of perspective about one topic, albeit the complex topic of climate change. The resulting shared images demonstrate some overlap, but overwhelmingly were varied representing the international and intersectional disciplines and interests in the room (Figure 5).
Visual communication is a powerful tool for effectively engaging, sometimes emotionally evoking, an audience, telling stories, and creating intrigue.
We mindmapped the presented themes around Climate Change, demonstrated with polar bears how some of the ideas around Climate Change are connected to one another, and finally identified where our own research intersects those themes (Figure 6). Together we covered so much that speaks to the wide range and complexity of local and global climate changes connected to the people of Wageningen University and Research.
Jennifer hopes the talk inspired participants to think about their work and how they communicate their work in different ways, climate change from new perspectives, and possibilities for overlap and collaboration with others (Figure 7)!
