Event time:
Tuesday, February 25, 2025 - 2:30pm
Location:
Online via Zoom, and Horchow Hall, GM Room (55 Hillhouse Avenue)
Event description:
For his Master’s Degree at the Yale School of the Environment, Dominik Juling conducted 10 weeks of fieldwork in Varanasi, India. Originally planning to study how climate change might cause new conflicts or interact with existing social conflicts, he didn´t find any obvious connections in the ancient city. Instead, he encountered a series of more subtle tensions at the interface of a changing climate and the local social world. Utilizing interdisciplinary methods like ethnographic research, Geo Information Systems, and historical analysis, Dominik’s presentation focuses on the different ways in which climate change, together with centuries of human alterations of the environment, can lead to social tensions underneath the threshold of a conflict. Different dimensions of such “climate tensions”, understudied in the current literature, are explored. Together with a potential explanation of why no obvious climate conflict can be observed in Varanasi, this research offers insights into what might come before a climate conflict and how to prevent them in the future.
Dominik Juling, born and raised in Southern Germany, is an interdisciplinary researcher, currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science at the Yale School of Environment. He has a Master´s Degree in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and a Bachelor´s Degree in Political Science from the Technical University of Munich. He has professional experience as a soldier in the German Armed Forces and three institutions connected to international security. He also has a background in environmental activism and publishes on various topics. Dominik´s favorite hobby is photography, which he incorporates into his fieldwork sessions. His research interests lie at the intersection of the environment and climate with conflict, cooperation, and security.
Food Provided (Coffee, tea, drinks, and snacks.)
Admission:
Free but register in advance
Open to:
Yale Community Only