Sustainable Development Goals 16 peace, justice and strong institutions icon.

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Promoting peace and justice with effective, accountable and inclusive institutions.

Peace is needed for the world to truly be sustainable. Wars and internal strife are destabilizing in the quest towards progress. Institutions need to be held accountable to fix the problems our planet faces. This requires them to be transparent and to enforce the will of its community.

Sarah Lopez | Migrant Detention, Incarceration and the Spatial Imagination [1:19:32]

Texas has more migrant detention centers and migrant prisons than any other state in the Union. Sarah Lopez focuses the construction and design of migrant detention facilities in Texas since the 1960s in relation to immigration policy and private prison practices. Using archival and ethnographic methods that include historic newspaper articles, ICE contracts and documents, satellite imagery, field observations and interviews, this historic genealogy of the construction of detention facilities reveals the government’s abdication of design responsibilities as private prison corporations and construction companies assume authority and responsibility for making critical design decisions that impact migrants’ daily lives. (School of Architecture and Planning, 4/17/19)

Staging Fascism: Contemporary Artistic Practice and Rationalist Urban Space [2:22:33]

This panel tackles the complex interrelation between artistic practices and their historically charged subjects in urban environments.Three of the participating artists, Eiko Grimberg (Berlin), Heidi Specker (Berlin), and Caterina Borelli (Rome), and UB faculty from the departments of Art (John Opera), History (Camilo Trumper), and Architecture (Charles Davis) discuss tensions and ambivalences at sites that once served as propagandistic stage sets of Fascist power. How can artists, historians, and architects address these issues as critical observers rather than accomplices? (School of Architecture and Planning, 4/29/19)

Environmental Protection Belongs to the Public: Citizen & Community Science Decision-making & Policy [1:18:00]

Alison Parker, PhD serves as a Senior Program Associate with the Science and Technology Innovation Program (STIP) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. With STIP, Alison evaluates and amplifies innovative and participatory approaches to science and technology, including citizen science and low cost and open hardware. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Citizen Science Association, including as Chair in 2019-2020, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. (UB Community for Global Health Equity, 2/10/21)

Creating a Pathway to Climate Neutrality in NY [2:18]

On October 17th, 2019, the University at Buffalo hosted a conversation around the most aggressive climate change law in the country. The forum — Creating a Pathway to Climate Neutrality in NY: The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act — brought in policymakers, businesses, social justice advocates, environmentalists, academics, thought leaders and others and took a deep dive into the new legislation and what it means to achieving climate neutrality.

Earth Democracy: Sustainability, Justice and Peace

Dr. Vandana Shiva is trained as a Physicist and did her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory” from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. (RENEW)

The Need for Water Protectors

Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist and author working on issues of Indigenous Economics , Food and Energy Policy. She lives and works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, and is the Executive Director of Honor the Earth (HtE). 11-16-18. RENEW. 

Community Health and Community Violence: The Relationship and Impacts

Dr. Sandra Lane employs an anthropologist’s eye to the intersection of community health and community violence. Weaving a path of research, professional and personal experience, and a keen appreciation for the dynamic relationships among populations and environments, Dr. Lane connects the dots to a thorough application of an ecological perspective to address health, mental health, and economic problems. Specifically, Dr. Lane addresses issues of infant mortality, reproductive health, gun violence, street addiction, and describes the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder on the biological, neurological, and educational functioning of affected community residents. (UB School of Social Work, 2/25/19)

Introduction to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing

Incorporating ESG factors into the investment process is a way to reflect personal and ethical convictions within an investment portfolio. Learn the basics of sustainable investing. (UB Alumni, 5/11/20)

Sustainable Courses