Boreas Booya

Tonight was the last Boreas Booya of the semester and the topic was “Bridging the Intersections of Environmental and Social Justice” which was facilitated by the Student Advisory Team. Here is the blurb on tonight’s topic: “In this turbulent political time, questions of justice loom large. These questions challenge all of us. In light of them, how do we navigate the personal, professional and political in our work as academics? In this context, what is the role of academia and how is it changing?” (http://environment.umn.edu/leadership/boreas/networking/boreas-booyas/). Great questions about academics changing, but having worked in academics for more than 16 years and seeing the crap that still goes on, its changing at a glacial pace and really won’t change until the current generation of Baby boomers and the older generations retire or die off. Besides these questions we also discussed science and how do you define science. It seemed to me that a few students thought science should be on a pedestal or for those with degrees, which I believe is totally the wrong way to look at science. Science needs to be for the masses if its to survive and thrive. Anyone can do science. So some really interesting topics and a good size crowd (lots of PhD students this time around, including quite a few in political science). Did I mention the good food? Boreas always does a great job with the food for their events. So good topic, good food, good crowd, and unfortunately I was going on a few hours of sleep and could not string a sentence together. Ever have one of those days where you sound like a total dork? Yes, that was me tonight.