Imagining Tomorrow | Creativity, Climate and Hope

Join us for a kōrero on how creativity and arts activism can contribute to the climate conversation.  

Associate Professor Meg Parsons hosts a panel with four changemakers – Inka Pleiss, Anna Wang, Georgia Mae Pringle and Joshua Wang – talking about engagement and action through their creative practice.

Dr Meg Parsons (Ngāpuhi, Lebanese, Pākehā) is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, the co-editor-in-chief of Climate Risk Management and associate editor of Nature: Humanities and Social Science Communications .As a historian and teacher, Dr Parson’s research brings a decolonial lens to theories, policies, and practices surrounding climate change adaptation, environmental governance and management, and sustainable transformations. Her current research projects include: 1) examining how different individuals, iwi/hapū, communities, and institutions in Aotearoa imagine and/or enact climate justice through the policies and on-the-ground actions; 2) co-designing art activities to foster climate resilience; 3) exploring the role of Indigenous knowledge systems in responding to climate change and environmental degradation in Aotearoa, Vanuatu, and Fiji; and 4) investigating how just transitions are or could be implemented in different nation-states in the Global North and Global South.

Inka Pleiss is a PhD student at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, researching the impacts of climate change on the sooty shearwater/tītī. She also helps deliver various sustainability, geography and biology courses at the university as a teaching assistant. Inka’s research interests lie in ecophysiology and conservation, as well as science communication.

Georgia Mae Pringle is a graduate of Toi Whakaari New Zealand drama school, and a master’s student at University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, researching the impact of lures on monitoring and trapping of feral cats. She regularly performs with the improv group Bullrush at the Basement Theatre and works in the conservation industry across Auckland.

Anna Wang is a master’s student in Environmental Management at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, researching how Auckland’s climate change adaptation policies address the needs of marginalised groups. Through her passion for birding, Anna has developed a deeper curiosity about the planet and a stronger commitment to caring for it.

Josh Wang is an honours student studying a conjoint degree in Environmental Science/Global Studies. He has been involved in various groups like Generation Zero and Sustainability Future's Collective and is currently looking at art in public spaces and their role in science engagement.

This kōrero is in alignment with the exhibition Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey, on now till 23 March 2025.

Artwork credit: Olafur Eliasson Under the weather, 2022, installation view: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles. Under the weather has been conceived by Olafur Eliasson and produced by Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence and Studio Olafur Eliasson, 2022.