University and community members join forces to deliver a message about climate change through the arts. Featuring cello major Kayla Mathes, who will perform a piece she has written on climate change; poet Sandra Steingraber; and Sara Adlerstein-Gonzalez, who will formally open an art exhibit she’s curated on climate change.

Sara Adlerstein-Gonzalez, PhD, has been a research faculty member at the School for Environment and Sustainability the University of Michigan for fourteen years. Her research program is centered on Great Lakes applied aquatic ecology, with emphasis on population assessments and ecosystem dynamics. She has authored over 50 peer review publications in scientific journals. Dr. Adlerstein is also a visual artist and she is involved with numerous projects bridging the arts and environmental sciences with particular focus on the role of art in conservation. One of her contributions to art and conservation is the creation of the Art & Environment Gallery in SEAS, where she is director and curator. Dr. Adlerstein is an artist member of the WSG gallery in Ann Arbor and her work is part of public and private collections in countries around the world. Her artwork is featured in Poemas de las Madres (Eastern Washington University Press, 1996).

Kayla Mathes is currently an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan pursuing a double degree in cello performance and environmental science. She was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and came to Michigan specifically for the music program in pursuit of becoming a professional musician. Half way through her college career, she discovered a new passion for ecology and environmental sciences which has since taken her down a very different path. She now hopes to pursue a career as a forest ecology researcher and teacher.

Biologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, PhD, writes about climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment. Steingraber’s highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment, was the first to bring together data on toxic releases with data from US cancer registries and was adapted for the screen in 2010. As both book and documentary film, Living Downstream has won praise from international media. A contributing essayist and editor for Orion magazine, Sandra Steingraber is currently a distinguished scholar in residence at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.

MC²: Michigan & the Climate Crisis is presented in conjunction with the Bicentennial LSA Theme Semester with support from: Science for the People, Office of the Provost; School for Environment and Sustainability; College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; Bicentennial Office; College of Engineering, Rackham Graduate School; Center for the Study of Complex Systems; Institute for the Humanities; Ross School of Business; Joseph A. Labadie Collection; LSA Honors Program; Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology; American Culture; Chemistry; Communication Studies; Earth and Environmental Sciences; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; Graham Sustainability Institute; History; Museum of Natural History; Physics; Program in Science, Technology, and Society; Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies; Anthropology; Asian Languages and Cultures; English Language and Literature; and Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies.