Award-winning author and environmental activist, Amitav Ghosh, captivated a packed audience at the Humanities Symposium with a keynote address, “The Great Uprooting: Migration and Movement in the Age of Climate Change,” on Thursday, March 13.
The event, centered around his non-fiction book “The Great Derangement,” addressed the intersection of climate change and human migration. He urged attendees to consider the broader implications of the climate crisis on displaced populations. Ghosh’s book examines the climate crisis through various lenses, including history, politics, and the arts, offering an interdisciplinary approach to understanding global challenges.
“The book is about how each discipline has a role to play in climate change and coming up with solutions. It’s not your typical climate change book that is full of depressing facts and figures. It’s more about how we, as individuals in our respective fields, need to think about climate change and its impact,” said Dr. Billy Friebele, Humanities Symposium Director and Associate Professor of Visual Arts at Loyola.
Ghosh explored the ways climate change is exacerbating migration patterns across the globe. Drawing on his own experiences and research, Ghosh reflected on his journey to migrant camps in Italy, where he interviewed individuals displaced by both environmental and political upheavals.
“My own family was displaced from Bangladesh from a climate event in the 1990s. I started speaking to these migrants in 2017 because, unlike many journalists, I speak their languages and can offer a different perspective,” Ghosh said.
Ghosh also addressed the essential role of technology in modern migration. He highlighted the critical importance of cell phones, noting that these devices act as lifelines for migrants, providing safety, directions, and a means of communication during perilous journeys.
“Every link in the chain of movement depends on cell phones. Their mobile devices are their compasses that guide them on their journeys. When migrants confront danger, their first move is to call someone for help,” Ghosh said.
The symposium sparked a lively discussion among attendees, many of whom were deeply engaged with the themes of migration and climate change, as reflected by the perspectives of students like Ana Sofia Calderon ‘28. Calderon, who attended the keynote as part of her history class on Israel and Palestine, was drawn to the topic of migration due to her own family’s history.
“I was personally interested as well because all of my grandparents are immigrants. My grandparents from the Dominican Republic escaped Rafael Trujillo, a brutal dictator. So this being the foundation of why my family is in the US has always led me to be curious and passionate about people’s journeys of migration,” Calderon said.
Calderon noted the contrast between historical migration stories and modern-day migration, particularly the role of technology.
“Ghosh talked a lot about the role of cell phones in migration and how they’re used as tools and serve as communication devices that are imperative, safety-wise, direction-wise, etc. It’s fascinating to me how much we’ve progressed,” Calderon said.
Friebele emphasized how the symposium embodied Loyola’s commitment to the liberal arts mission, bringing together diverse disciplines to contribute to the conversation on global challenges.
“I think this event is the sort of embodiment of the liberal arts mission. It’s amazing to sit in that room and hear the perspective of a theology student and then hear the perspectives of a writing student… we’re all reading this text and we’re all contributing to this larger discussion,” Friebele said.
As the evening came to a close, Ghosh left the audience with a challenging thought: “It is not enough to understand the issues. It is time to rethink how we view migration and climate change, and how we, in our own disciplines, can contribute to solutions.”
For Loyola students and faculty alike, the symposium was a powerful reminder of the pressing need for reflection, action, and collaboration in addressing the complex relationship between climate change and human migration.
