Meet Joshua Trey Barnett, Nancy Tuana, and Martha Wadsworth: Three panelists from the Sustainable Environment and Health Panel (See October 25 Newsletter for spotlights on the two other panelists).
Joshua Trey Barnett is an Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences. Barnett’s studies focus on the rhetoric of earthly coexistence. He has published two books and several essays. His first book, “Mourning in the Anthropocene”, focuses on the rhetorical practices of ecological grief. His second book, “Ecological Feelings”, focuses on the rhetorical dimensions of ecological feelings.
At the panel, Barnett discussed the rhetorical ecologies of care and violence. To bring light to the subject, he drew examples from discourse about the spotted lanternfly. Barnett’s discussion sought to increase awareness of zoe-rhetorical formations and how help shape earthly coexistence.
Nancy Tuana is a Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her areas of specialization include feminist philosophy, liberatory epistemologies, approaches to intersectionality, epistemological and ethical issues, and climate science. Tuana is also the Founding Director of Rock Ethics Institute, which promotes engaged ethics research and ethical leadership in the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts.
At the panel, Tuana discussed disparate health impacts due to systemic racism created by property laws affecting where people live. She dove into how these impacts are linked to gender and class differences and drew examples from heat islands in the United States.
Martha Wadsworth is a Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training. Wadsworth conducts a research program that aims to develop a rich, contextual understanding of how children in poverty adapt to their difficult life circumstances. Her work focuses on identifying individual, family, and community strengths that promote positive outcomes for youths exposed to poverty-related stress and trauma.
At the panel, Wadsworth discussed how economic inequality create stressful developmental contexts for children. Topics of this discussion included the lack of adequate resources in school, crime and violence in neighborhoods, and communities without adequate employment options, enrichment, and food.
