The Fall 2026/Spring 2027 Academic Events Calendar (including arts programming) will be posted soon! 

The Climate Fresk/La Fresque du Climat (ETL's 3rd Fresk)

A Climate Fresk workshop will take place at Georgia Tech on November 11, 2025 with France-Atlanta and the City of Atlanta Sustainability Ambassador Program. 

Presented by Climate Fresk, the Consulate General of France in Atlanta, Georgia Tech, and Alliance Française d'Atlanta, as part of #FranceAtlanta2025. 

Learn more here and here!

Post-event summary - thank you to @frenchgatech and @gtfrenchclub for the write-up!

Yesterday’s Climate Fresk workshop at Georgia Tech, in partnership with France-Atlanta, was a great success! 

It was inspiring to see the 19 participants and 6 facilitators - including students from Dr. Stepanov’s FREN 4813/8803 Energy Humanities class and professionals from the City of Atlanta Sustainability Ambassador program - working together to think through complex questions related to climate change.

Heartfelt thanks to France-Atlanta (Delphine Jeroudi, Clémence Bradley, Benoit Morvan), Brigitte Stepanov at Georgia Tech, the CoA Sustainability Ambassador program, and our amazing facilitators - Anna Zelcer (Climate Fresk Local Ambassador for Georgia), Steve Place, Yassine Ben Zineb, Rania Hamzeh, and Blanca Carretero Ortiz de Zarate.

The Atomic Now (I)

Energy + Environment in Film

Director's Bio:

EN: Originally from the Côte-Nord and in love with the land, Nadine discovered documentary cinema during her master's studies in applied sciences. Since then, she has been interested in the relationships people have with their real and dream worlds. She creates documentary films carrying a reflection that is both human and territorial, and her creative impetus imbued with poetry is inhabited by belonging, identity and imagination.

FR: Originaire de la Côte-Nord et amoureuse du territoire, Nadine découvre le cinéma documentaire lors de ses études de maîtrise en sciences appliquées. Depuis, elle s'intéresse aux rapports qu'entretiennent les gens avec leurs univers réels et rêvés. Elle réalise des films documentaires porteurs d'une réflexion à la fois humaine et territoriale, et son élan créateur empreint de poésie est habité par l'appartenance, l'identité et l'imaginaire.

French Day

Check out Solar Day at GT!

A Celebration of Learning!

SLS-France Info Sessions

Environmental Humanities Lecture

Environmental Art: A Creative Workshop

Cranes for Our Future

Interdisciplinary and Critical Approaches to Sustainability

April 24, 2024: 8:30 am - 6:00 pm

AGSC (Atlanta Global Studies Center) invites you to join our conference on Interdisciplinary and Critical Approaches to Sustainability, entitled “Sustainability in a Planet of Diverse Knowledges and Persistent Inequalities”.

The morning session will feature panels of faculty from Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, College of Design, Institute of People and Technology, the College of Engineering, and College of Science, all in dialogue with faculty from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The afternoon will focus on critical approaches to the concept of sustainability, featuring scholars from across the Institute and two keynote events: Nelson Maldonado-Torres's "Colonial and Decolonial Sustainabilities" and Jessica Hernandez's "Indigenous Science: From Local to Global Context." Click here to register.

The Climate Fresk/La Fresque du Climat (ETL's 2nd Fresk)

Research Forum: Environmental Humanities

You are cordially invited to attend the spring 2024 ML Research Forum on April 9, 2024 at 3:30 pm in the Wilby classroom G120 in the Crosland Tower (and via Teams) where Brigitte Stepanov and Miguel Rosas Buendia will present their research and talk about the work in their labs to kick off a discussion on environmental humanities in and outside of ML. Each colleague will present 20 minutes with 20 minutes for Q&A. 

Brigitte Stepanov will present on "Epistemologies of Energy: Infrastructure, Community, Poetics" and Miguel Rosas Buendia will present on "Andean Mining Landscapes: Science, Society and Culture."

Learn more here.

Global Media Fest

The Global Media Festival is the GT School of Modern Languages’ annual film and discussion series focusing on sustainability across languages and cultures. The 2024 festival explores themes around a variety of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All screenings are free and open to the public. They include complementary popcorn and catering. 

Highlights of this year’s festival include the screening of “Bigger Than Us” (France), a documentary by director Flore Vasseur about the struggle of young activists featuring Melati Wijsen, Memory Banda, Mohamad Al Jounde, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Winnie Tushabe, Rene Silva, and Mary Finn. 

Learn more about the film here.

View each film screening event and RSVP via Eventbrite.

Co-sponsored by the School of Modern Languages; the Atlanta Global Studies Center; the School of Literature, Media, and Communication; and the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems.

Atomic Aesthetics

On the heels of in-class discussions focused on Hiroshima mon amour and Oppenheimer, the SLS program continues its analyses of atomic aesthetics with two events. Join us on November 21, 2023 from 5-8:30pm for an origami masterclass followed by a film screening and further discussion centered on nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, non-proliferation, and peacebuilding. 

Learn more about peace cranes here.

Artist Talks/Artists Talk: An Ecology of Objects

Join us on November 16, 2023 from 5-6pm for a discussion with the student artists of "An Ecology of Objects" at the GT-E Kiosk. Learn more about the artists' mixed media process and approach to representing environmental concerns today.

Croissants and French Study Abroad Info Session

The current SLS cohort will be sharing perspectives online during this session! 

Doing Energy and Environmental History: A Conversation between Charles-François Mathis and Brigitte Stepanov

Join us for a discussion about why historical analyses – and humanistic modes of thought more broadly – are indispensable to understanding how societies fuel themselves and conceive of energy over time. We will be focusing on how evaluating past notions of energy can allow us to take better stock of our current energy crises and help us find equitable and just solutions moving forward.

EN: Charles-François Mathis is a professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a member of the Institute of Modern and Contemporary History. Former president of the University Network of Researchers on Environmental History, he is on the editorial committee of the Environment and History journal and director of the “The Environment has a History” collection, published by Champ Vallon. A specialist of environmental and British history, he is notably the author of In Nature We Trust. Les paysages anglais à l’ère industrielle (In Nature We Trust: English landscapes in the Industrial Age), Greening the City: Nature in French Towns from the 17th Century, co-authored with Emilie-Anne Pépy (The White Horse Press, 2020), and La Civilisation du Charbon (Coal Civilization, Vendémiaire, 2021).

FR: Charles-François Mathis est Professeur d’histoire contemporaine à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, membre de l’Institut d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine. Ancien président du Réseau Universitaire de Chercheurs en Histoire Environnementale, il est membre du comité éditorial de la revue Environment and History et dirige la collection « L’Environnement a une histoire », chez Champ Vallon. Spécialiste d’histoire environnementale et britannique, il est notamment l’auteur de In Nature We Trust. Les paysages anglais à l’ère industrielle (2010), de La Ville végétale. Une histoire de la nature en milieu urbain (France, XVIIe – XXIe siècles), coécrit avec Emilie-Anne Pépy (2017) et de La Civilisation du Charbon (Vendémiaire, 2021).

Learn more here.

What (is) Universalism? Planetary Poetics and an Ecology of the Cosmos: A Conversation between Maboula Soumahoro and Brigitte Stepanov

Join us for an (eco)critical discussion about universalism, planetary understandings of "world," and being and belonging in the "era of the Anthropocene."

EN: Maboula Soumahoro is an associate professor at the University of Tours and president of the Black History Month Association, dedicated to celebrating Black history and cultures. A specialist in the field of Africana Studies, she has conducted research and taught in several universities and prisons in the United States and France and was most recently the inaugural Villa Albertine Resident in Atlanta (2021-2022). From 2013 to 2017, Soumahoro served as a member of the National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery. She is the author of Le Triangle et l’Hexagone, réflexions sur une identité noire, translated in English by Kaiama L. Glover as Black Is the Journey, Africana the Name and prefaced by Saidiya Hartman. This book was distinguished by the FetKann! Maryse Condé Literary Prize in 2020. In 2022-2023, Maboula Soumahoro will be an international visiting professor at the African-American and Africana Studies Department of Columbia University as well as a visiting faculty at Bennington College. In 2023-2024 she is a fellow at the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination. She translated from English À perte de mère – Sur les routes atlantiques de l’esclavage (original title: Lose Your Mother. A Journey Along The Atlantic Slave) released in September 2023.

FR: Maboula Soumahoro a obtenu un doctorat en civilisations du monde anglophone. Elle est aujourd’hui spécialiste en études étatsuniennes, africaines-américaines africaines et de la diaspora noire/africaine. Maîtresse de conférences à l’université de Tours (France), elle a également étudié et enseigné au sein de nombreux autres établissements scolaires et pénitentiaires en France et aux États-Unis : Bennington College, Columbia University (New York et Paris) et Barnard College, Bard Prison Initiative, Stanford University (Paris), Sciences Po (Paris et Reims), les prisons de Bois-d’Arcy, Villepinte (quartier des mineurs) et Fresnes. Ellea été résidente de la Villa Albertine à Atlanta entre novembre 2021 et janvier 2022. De 2013 à 2016, Maboula Soumahoro a été membre du Comité National pour l’Histoire et la Mémoire de l’Esclavage (CNMHE). Depuis 2013, Maboula Soumahoro préside l’association Black History Month (BHM), dédiée à la célébration de l’histoire et des cultures du monde noir. Elle est notamment l’autrice du Triangle et l’Hexagone : réflexions sur une identité noire (La Découverte, 2020) traduit en anglais sous le titre Black is the Journey, Africana the Name (Polity, 2021) et qui a reçu la mention spéciale du Prix Littéraire FETKANN! Maryse Condé en 2020. En 2022-2023, Maboula Soumahoro est professeure internationale invitée au département des études afro-américaines et africaines de l’Université de Columbia ainsi que professeure invitée au Bennington College. Son année 2023-2024 se déroulera à l’Institut des idées et de l’imagination de l’Université Columbia. Elle traduit de l’anglais À perte de mère – Sur les routes atlantiques de l’esclavage (titre original : Lose Your Mother. A Journey Along The Atlantic Slave Route, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) sorti en septembre 2023 (Brook).

Learn more here.

Climate Fresk/La Fresque du Climat

Learn about climate change, discuss options for the future, and get excited to take action with guest Léa Ovet, environmental engineer and Climate Fresk facilitator, and SLS-France Director Dr. Stepanov. 

EN: Léa Ovet is an AgroParisTech engineer specializing in climate and environmental management. After a year traveling around the Mediterranean basin, meeting various actors involved in adapting to climate change, she became aware of the urgency of the current ecological crisis and decided to devote her professional life to the fight against climate change and the preservation of other Planetary Boundaries.

Her professional experience with Blue Choice, the decarbonization strategy consulting firm, has given her a wide vision of the challenges facing different sectors. As a result, she now works for all kinds of companies, as well as public institutions, organizing training sessions based on the Climate Fresk within these organizations and helping participants understand the issues in their own sector and their power to take action. 

She facilitates workshops on environmental issues, such as the Climate and Biodiversity Fresks, and their related levers of action, such as Inventing our Low-Carbon Lives and 2-Tonnes.

FR: Léa Ovet est ingénieure AgroParisTech, spécialisée en climat et gestion de l’environnement. Après une année de voyage autour du bassin méditerranéen à rencontrer des acteurs de l’adaptation au changement climatique, elle prend conscience de l’urgence des crises écologiques actuelles et décide de consacrer sa vie professionnelle à la lutte contre le changement climatique et à la préservation des autres limites planétaires.

Son expérience professionnelle dans le cabinet de conseil en stratégie de décarbonation Blue Choice, lui a donné une vision large des enjeux des différents secteurs. Cela lui permet aujourd’hui de travailler pour tous types d’entreprises, mais aussi pour les pouvoirs publics, en organisant des déploiements de la fresque du climat au sein de ces organisations, en aidant les participants à comprendre les enjeux de leur propre secteur, et leur pouvoir d’action. 

Elle anime à la fois des ateliers sur le constat, comme les fresques du climat, de la biodiversité, mais aussi sur les leviers d’action, comme inventons nos vies bas carbones et 2 tonnes.

Learn more here.

Energy Listening Sessions

The Rights of Nature