Format/Structure

What is the power of poetry to highlight and tackle environmental and climate in/justice? In the workshop we experiment with methods of documentary poetry-writing, to engage in a critical and creative conversation with the recent legal opinion on the obligations of states regarding climate change.

Long Abstract

Many writers have used poetry to testify, witness, and raise socio-environmental issues and to tell stories of resistance and repair. There is also a growing interest in using creative modes of writing and art-based methods for communicating and even researching in political ecology and environmental humanities.

What kinds of eco-social relations and justice claims can we convey and affect through poetic witnessing, remembering, imagining? What is the power of this age-old and simple medium in the face of contemporary crises?

In the workshop, we will think and discuss these and related questions by using some accessible techniques and methods of poetry-writing. In particular, we will draw from the tradition of ‘documentary poetics,’ a lineage of poetry-writing which uses existing documents and other found sources, often from justice-based perspective. Together, we will engage in creative dialogue with the ground-breaking advisory opinion from 2025, issued by the International Court of Justice “Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change.” Through poetic rewriting, we will seek to understand its potentials and limitations. We will also consider and discuss how we can use some of these writing techniques in our respective practices.

No experience in creative or poetry-writing is required. The workshop will be held in English.

The workshop is connected to my ongoing interdisciplinary research project which explores the potential of poetry for climate justice education and communication, with the focus on the trans-national impacts of the Swedish public pension system.