May 3, 2011

The second conference of the Initiative on Climate Adaptation Research and Understanding through the Social Sciences, or ICARUS-2, will take place at the School of Natural Resources and Environment in the University of Michigan's Dana Building, Ann Arbor campus, May 5-8. The theme for ICARUS-2 is Climate Vulnerability and Adaption: Marginal Peoples and Environment. More than 100 papers are registered to be presented by scholars and researchers from around the world. ICARUS-1was held at University of Illinois in 2010. Since last year, interest in climate adaptation has grown substantially, and ICARUS-2 is twice as large in terms of papers submitted and registered attendees.

SNRE Dean Rosina M. Bierbaum will provide opening remarks for the conference. Maria Blair, the National Vice President at the American Cancer Society and formerly managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation and deputy associate director for climate change adaptation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, will deliver the keynote address on Friday. Attendees from Mexico, Uruguay, Sweden, France, Japan, Cambodia, Tanzania, Nigeria and many other countries will present the latest research on climate-adaptation.

ICARUS was founded in 2009 by Arun Agrawal and Maria Lemos of SNRE; Ben Orlove (Columbia University and University of California Davis); and Jesse Ribot (University of Illinois). The Initiative brings together scholars, researchers, students, decision makers and activists interested in working on adaptation to climate variability and change. It provides a platform for reporting results of research, a means for more collaborative work and a way for scholars and intellectuals to engage with decision makers and practitioners. The ICARUS conference is typically followed by one or more ICARUS-writeshops organized in the subsequent year on the themes represented at the conference.

"The conference will bring together the latest international research on climate adaptation," Agrawal said. "University of Michigan is becoming a leader in adaption research, and we hope the community of scholarship on climate adaptation will continue to grow and thrive." Lemos indicated that one of the chief goals of ICARUS is to facilitate stronger conversations on adaptation to climate impacts.

ICARUS-2 is sponsored by: the Dean's office at the School of Natural Resources and Environment; the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan; the Center for South Asian Studies; the South Africa Initiative Office of the Center for Afro-American and African Studies; the Center for African Studies; the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; the International Institute; the Environmental Law and Policy Program at the U-M Law School; the Center for Southeast Asian Studies; SNRE faculty;  and the Social Dimensions of Environmental Policy (SDEP) at University of Illinois.  For more information please visit www.icarus.info