UHD President's Lecture Series: Sustainability in the Anthropocene
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Central
CEC Member Organization Event
President’s Lecture on Sustainability: Sustainability Transitions in the Anthropocene
Wednesday, April 22, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
(Fondren Commons, College of Sciences and Technology Bldg.) 
Lunch is provided for those who RSVP.
The panel will bring together interdisciplinary perspectives at the intersection of anthropology, storytelling, design, technology, and living systems. The discussion will focus on cultural and systemic pathways toward more just and resilient futures.
Natacha Poggio, Associate Professor of Design, will moderate this panel discussion with invited guests Dominic Boyer and Cymene Howe—anthropology professors at Rice University and co-hosts of the podcast Cultures of Energy, who work on social design projects—and Nathan Shedroff, professor in interaction design at California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
Panelists:
A 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, Dominic Boyer, Professor of Anthropology at Rice University, is a cultural anthropologist, media maker, and co-founder of the field of Energy Humanities. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Rice Sustainability Institute and co-directs Rice’s Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience (CFAR) and the Social Design Lab. His work bridges energy systems, media, and climate futures through research, storytelling, and public engagement. Boyer is a prolific author who has written and edited nine books and volumes focused on topics such as media, energy humanities, and environmental anthropology, including titles like No More Fossils (2023), Energopolitics (2019), and The Life Informatic (2013).
Cymene Howe, Professor of Anthropology at Rice University, is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on climate change, environmental inequalities, and the social dimensions of sustainability. Her work offers critical insight into how climate futures are shaped by power, culture, and lived experience across global contexts. Howe has authored or co-edited several key books in anthropology and environmental studies, primarily focusing on wind energy, the Anthropocene, and sexual rights. Her primary authored books include Intimate Activism (2013) and Ecologics: Wind and Power in the Anthropocene (2019), along with co-editing Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon (2020).
Nathan Shedroff, Professor in the Graduate Interaction Design Program and former chair of the groundbreaking Design MBA program in design strategy
at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, is a pioneer in Experience Design, Interaction Design, and Information Design, as well as a serial entrepreneur. He researches, speaks, and teaches internationally about strategic innovation, systems thinking, sustainability, and generative leadership. Shedroff has authored more than ten books, including A Whole New Strategy, Blindspot, Design Is the Solution, Design Strategy in Action, Make It So, and Experience Design 1.1.University of Houston Downtown
Fondren Commons, College of Sciences and Technology Bldg
1 Main Street
Houston, TX 77002
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| 4/22/2026 |    |
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