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A black circle with the word turn with a red letter U next to the words tUrn Climate Crisis Awareness & Action

Detail from Artist Marc Osborn, Climate Action Network

tune in...

Goals

HEADLINERS + RESOURCES + PARTNERS + U = tUrn

tUrn is designed as a dynamic interplay of transformative headliner events, 

resources grouped by themes to spark conversation and action,

and partners near and far who are making it all happen

+, most importantly,

U!

tUrn takes pace for one week in October and one week in April

fall 2024 tUrn11 will be Oct 14-18 beginning on Indigenous Peoples' Day

spring 2025 tUrn12 will be Apr 21-25 during Earth Week

 

We cannot fashion a more just, humane, and sustainable world

if there is no world to fashion. Climate action needs to be everyone’s business

and everyone’s part-time side hustle!

 

To navigate our site, please check out these areas to learn more...

 

SHARED GOALS

What could change by having a week in fall and in spring

dedicated to climate crisis awareness and action?

 

Goal 1:

 Re-center vulnerable communities & voices 

as leaders/teachers with regards to climate crisis.

Goal 2:

Cultivate awareness of the climate crisis 

through interdisciplinary examinations of truth, beauty, justice and the common good 

and further educate and inspire even the already committed.

Goal 3:

Raise alarm & sense of urgency to appropriate, situation-matching (but still productive) levels.

Goal 4:

Inspire hope in and engagement from non-specialists.

Goal 5

Shape commitments toward focused, strategic, spiritually-grounded, 

equitable, informed actions (small and large scale).

 

H E A D L I N E R S

Deep dives into all different aspects of the climate crisis

from health to business, from arts to sciences.

Each event has a unique focus and feel.

Examples of headliners include

a marathon reading of laudato si’,

the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,

Indigenous leadership & activism, Mexican-American water relations, California Wildfires, Plant-based Diets, Youth & Climate Creativity, Disinformation, Renewables, Racism, Neuroscience, Friendship, Fossil Fuels, Agroecology, and so much more!

See the headliners tab above

for a sample of what

previous tUrns 

have offered.

 

R E S O U R C E S

Teach with tUrn or hold your own discussion.

tUrn curates a single click pdf downloadable document

containing interdisciplinary perspectives in thematic chapters.

For articles, talks, videos,

data visualizations, and research on

climate crisis awareness and action see the resources tab above.  

 

P A R T N E R S

tUrn works with a local and global network of partners

who lead their own sustainability efforts, create their own tUrn events or attend headliners at SCU

including Jesuit Volunteer Corps and Earth Day Network,

the global organizer of Earth Day Events.

Become a partner by emailing us at turnproject@scu.edu

 

FUTURE tUrns

WHAT ARE YOU DOING every APRIL & OCTOBER this decade?

Consider what you might do between now and the next tUrn week

to make the future less perilous for all those to come.

Report out on changes, small and large,

that we've undertaken

between tUrn weeks.

 

KEEP IT TOGETHER | BRING PEOPLE IN

It is important to work together and not be in isolation while facing the scientific

consensus that we are in a climate crisis.

Expanding our notion of expert, we seek the wisdom of lesser heard voices.

Let's create that supportive community that can do great things.

We got this.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In an effort to affirm indigenous sovereignty we intentionally begin our inquiry into climate crisis in the fall on what is recognized as Indigenous People's Day and in the spring during earth week because "there are no 'old' ways, there are no 'new' ways, there are just ways that respect Mother Earth and nature and ways that do not."

-Shannon Rivers, a member of the Akimel O'otham or River People

 

Alt text:

LAND & PEOPLE ACKNOWLEDGMENT

 

tUrn acknowledges that at Santa Clara University

we work, teach, and study on the traditional lands of the 

Ohlone & Muwekma Ohlone.

In an effort to affirm indigenous sovereignty, we intentionally center our inquiry into 

the climate crisis by turning to Indigenous leaders of this land and of diverse lands 

as our guides and teachers when we embark.

Throughout the week

—and always—

may we strive to honor, affirm

support, listen to, learn from and stand with 

Native Peoples, for whom the climate crisis of colonization, 

experienced as both actual and cultural genocide, began 528 years 

ago in the Western Hemisphere and just 242 years ago in California.

tUrn Headliners, Resources, and Partners reflect our attempts to shape 

this endeavor with humility and with gratitude for the contributions

of Indigenous people past, present and 

future,

but surely these efforts very imperfectly honor the magnificent 

resilience and spirit of a people who did not cause 

the impending climate crisis
 and who will
hopefully endure it
because of being in right relationship
with each other, with the
Creator, and
with the
Earth.

Alt text:

LABOR ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Inspired by concepts from Waeli Wang & Dr. Terah “TJ” Stewart.

Version for scu.edu/tUrn by Kristin Kusanovich

 

We acknowledge the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants

who worked this stolen land for the colonists, and we acknowledge

all Black families and individuals who continue to

disproportionately face economic oppression, 

racism, violence, exploitation and

climate injustices due to systemic,

systematic, group-level or individual racism.

 

For all who have toiled under duress, and who are

already suffering, or whose lives have been taken as a result of

racism, colonialism and the climate crisis, we encourage all of us engaged

in the tUrn project to consider how our work and learning in this space and in our daily lives

can address historic and present-day atrocities, perpetrated against Black, Brown,

Indigenous and other racialized or marginalized peoples

and, in so doing, how we might re-center

those voices, those wisdoms,

those worldviews

and uplift them.

 

We invite

everyone in this space

to recognize your ancestors,

and the forces of history that brought you here,

as well as the work you and others are engaged in to support the collective

liberation of all people and all beings now and in the future.

Thank you for taking this moment with us before we

endeavor to lean in to the climate crisis.

 

 

May the themes and threads found in tUrn headliners, the offerings and priorities of tUrn's resources, the diversity of the partners, and the spirit of how the tUrn Advisory Council guides the project all reflect this intention.

This effort to normalize the discourse around climate crisis and move into solution mode is greatly assisted by

Santa Clara University College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Office

 

Key partners in 2021-24:

The Interdisciplinary tUrn:

A Climate Crisis Research Group for Faculty & Staff

Office of Multicultural Learning | Rainbow Resource Center

Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative

Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences

Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education Arrupe Program &

Jean Donovan Fellowship Program

Center for the Arts & Humanities

Center for Sustainability

Child Studies Program

de Saisset Museum

 

key student partners:

Emily Pachoud | tUrn Research Intern 2020-2023

Environmental Law Society

Net Impact

SLURP | Sustainable Living Undergraduate Research Project

SCU ENACT Students for Environmental Justice

NACC | Native American Coalition for Change

SCU SUNRISE MOVEMENT Chapter

SCU GREEN Team

 

 

contact us at turnproject@scu.edu