Dilshanie Perera and Akua Banful Join The Climate Museum as Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellows in Climate and Inequality
New York, NY, (September 8, 2020) — The Climate Museum, the first climate-dedicated museum in the United States, has deepened its focus on climate and inequality with the hiring of two humanities scholars through two-year fellowships funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Andrew W. Mellon Fellows in Climate and Inequality — Dilshanie Perera, Post-Doctoral Fellow, and Akua Banful, Pre-Doctoral Fellow — will amplify a social justice and environmental humanities framework throughout the museum’s interdisciplinary programming. The Fellows’ expertise in the structural and systemic inequalities that inform the climate crisis will be integrated within exhibition development, public programming, and ongoing research on best practices for public engagement and outreach.
Perera’s doctoral research at Stanford University incorporated findings of her anthropological fieldwork in Bangladesh with state meteorologists and rural farming communities on their experience with uncertain weather. She examines the intersection of emergent forms of risk and longstanding structural dispossessions. Her work is inspired by practices of community-building and solidarity-making that demand change and imagine just futures. She has already advanced the Museum’s discussion series on climate and inequality, which launched prior to her arrival with the panel “Black Lives and the Climate Crisis.” Perera holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the New School for Social Research, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University.
“Environmental justice efforts around the world address the inequities of poverty, racism and other forms of structural violence as they contend with changing ecologies, Perera said. “I want to get more directly involved in efforts to address the climate crisis through this intersectional framework.”
Banful’s research at Columbia University focuses on discourses of colonialism and climate. At the Museum, she will develop content and outreach strategies that mobilize public engagement with the intersecting realities of climate change and social inequality. She is passionate about fostering youth engagement with climate change and environmental justice through the arts, and has previously served as a Humanities New York Mellon Public Humanities Fellow. Banful is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University and holds an A.B. from Princeton University.
“This role allows me to put my scholarly, pedagogical and art-historical interests to work in an outreach role, Banful said, “I can use critical examinations of the history and culture of climate to deploy the imaginations of various communities as they rise to meet the challenges presented by the climate crisis.”
“A focus on climate and inequality has always been essential,” said Miranda Massie, Climate Museum Director. “With every day bringing new levels of state-sponsored racist division and violence and new levels of struggle for a fundamental new equality, this work matters even more than ever."
About the Climate Museum — The Climate Museum’s mission is to inspire action on the climate crisis with programming across the arts and sciences that deepens understanding, builds connections, and advances just solutions. Most people in the US are worried about the climate crisis, but silent and inactive. The museum has been offering public programming since 2017 to meet the rising demand for multiple pathways into civic engagement and climate action. Through exhibitions, panels, workshops, educational initiatives, and youth programs, it builds community around just solutions, mobilizing people to join the fight for a brighter future. Programs are presented at the museum’s exhibition hub on Governors Island, in parks, galleries, and other venues citywide and, in 2020, through virtual events. Additional information is available at climatemuseum.org.
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