Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law (CISRUL) members Dr Alejandra Rodríguez-Remedi and Dr Rebecca Macklin will be holding a two-day workshop, ‘Energy Transitions: Northeast Scotland and Alberta Visualised through a Humanistic-Artistic Lens’, funded by the CHCI Membership Activity Fund.
The two-day workshop, planned in Aberdeen for February 2027, is focused on an exchange between CISRUL and the Calgary Institute for the Humanities (CIH). As CHCI member centres with humanities expertise and similar histories as extractivist hotspots – including Aberdeen’s reputation as the ‘oil capital’ of Europe – Dr Rodríguez-Remedi describes both CISRUL and CIH as sharing a ‘concern for the impact of energy systems on humans and non-humans.’
The event will draw on Aberdeen’s Just Transition Lab (2021-), Environmental Arts and Humanities Network (2025-) and local activists Friends of St. Fittick’s (2020-) and build on the Aberdeen Curtin Calgary Alliance (2022-), paving the way for a future event at CIH. It will ‘delve into arts, humanities and grassroots activism to outline holistic, creative pathways to sustainability and wellbeing which, while rooted in Scottish and Canadian contexts, will have wider significance. Creatives versed in socially engaged art and transformative pedagogical methods will lead hands-on activities to inspire curiosity and thinking about ways of doing and knowing energy cultures.’
Dr Rodríguez-Remedi has also recently worked alongside several other CHCI members to successfully obtain funding for a project titled ‘Climate Futures Between Sacrifice and Progress’. The project, led by Dr Olga Nikolić (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade), will see scholars, activists and local communities in Serbia, Scotland, Montana, Arizona and Puerto Rico working together. The broader Climate Futures Initiative for 2026 and 2027 brings together humanities scholars and art practitioners ‘in a sustained, long-term commitment to environmental humanities’.
More details on both the workshop and the project will be shared in the lead-up on the CISRUL website and social media channels (links below).
Dr Rodríguez-Remedi has worked with holistic and participatory methodologies as an educational researcher during the period of national educational reform which followed Chile’s re-democratisation. As a teacher-researcher, she is interested in the transnational work of exiled artists, and comparative, interdisciplinary and arts-based approaches to socio-environmental justice, particularly in the context of Aberdeen’s energy transition.
Dr Rebecca Macklin is Interdisciplinary Fellow in Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity at the University of Aberdeen and based in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture. Her current research examines how arts-based and participatory research methods can be employed to support community-engaged scholarship on energy transitions, ecocultural heritage, and energy justice.
Cover image: https://chcinetwork.org/initiatives/climate-futures