At a time when political rhetoric fuels division, polarization, and pessimism in both the United States and Germany, it is possible to find inspirational stories about individuals in rural states coming together at the local level to solve urgent and shared problems.
Over the past decade, Professor Jenny Reardon has traveled by bike across the United States and Germany. Through her blog about her travels across rural Kansas and Brandenburg, she has documented the many successes at the local levels in both countries—how people in often overlooked rural areas have broken through rigid political defaults and worked together to find common ground. Such successes include healing wounded agricultural lands through ecological farming, renewing communities through creative design, and rehabilitating watersheds and aquifers through problem-focused means.
We hope you can join us to hear Professor Reardon’s stories of finding common ground and seeking ways to live together on both sides of the Atlantic.
Jenny Reardon is a Professor of Sociology and the Founding Director of the Science and Justice Research Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University and a BS in Biology and a BA in Political Science from the University of Kansas. Her research draws into focus questions about identity, justice and democracy that are often silently embedded in scientific ideas and practices, particularly in modern genomic research. Her training spans molecular biology, the history of biology, science studies, feminist and critical race studies, and the sociology of science, technology, and medicine. She is the author of Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics (Princeton University Press, 2005) and The Postgenomic Condition: Ethics, Justice, Knowledge After the Genome (Chicago University Press, 2017). She has been the recipient of fellowships and awards from, among others, the National Science Foundation, the Max Planck Institute, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Technical University of Munich, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and the United States Congressional Committee on Science, Space and Technology. In the Fall of 2017, she started a project to bike over one thousand miles through her home state of Kansas to learn from farmers, ranchers, and other denizens of the high plains about how best to know and care for the prairie.
Dale Medearis (Moderator) is a Senior Environmental Planner for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, where he co-leads the NVRC’s Regional Climate Mitigation and Adaptation programs and manages NVRC’s International Partnerships. Medearis helped co-launch the first formal climate and energy partnership between the 40 largest US and European metropolitan regional councils, co-initiate the Transatlantic Climate Bridge, co-launch the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s “Cities and Climate” Network, and co-develop the Transatlantic Urban Climate Dialogue with the Free University Berlin. Prior to NVRC, Medearis spent 20 years at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of International Affairs as the Program Manager for Western Europe and Urban Environmental Programs. He served as Vice-Chair of the OECD Territorial Development Committee and Chairman of the OECD Working Group on Urban Affairs. Medearis was a German Chancellor Fellow (1994-1995) and has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the European Union, and the American Council on Germany. Medearis holds a PhD in Environmental Design and Planning from Virginia Tech University, an MS in Cartographic and Geographic Science from George Mason University, an MGA in Government from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Redlands.
