Submission for the "International workshop on Climate-Resilient Development in Southeast Asia" 

International workshop on 

Climate-resilient development in Southeast Asia 

at Harvard University, USA, on July 25-26, 2024 

An increasing number of studies warn that climate change is a major threat to human societies and is projected to cause growing damage and loss in the near future, even if currently planned mitigation goals are met. The question of how to maintain and enhance “climate resilience” - in simple words, the capacity of socio-ecosystems to survive and develop in changing climate - is of utmost importance. Promoting climate-resilient development has become a key priority in fields like risk management, urban planning, health care and others. Southeast Asia includes multiple emerging economies facing increasing threats of global warming and climate overshoot. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian countries are quickly developing social and economic systems and enhancing capacities to cope with climate impacts.

However, scientific research is insufficiently developed to understand the evolving capacity of social resilience to climate change impacts. To explore with colleagues from Southeast Asia whether, where, and how climate resilient development can be enhanced both in general and in their region in particular, we invite participation in an “International Workshop on Climate-Resilient Development in Southeast Asia”.

Convened by the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the Harvard Asia Center, the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia (all of Harvard University), and the STORIES Project in the Department of Geography of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the workshop is financially supported by the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability and invites participation from Southeast Asia and the world at large. It aims to promote research exchange of scholars from multiple disciplines and of diverse regional expertise on the status and dynamics of climate resilience studies as well as to generate policy-relevant knowledge regarding climate resilient development pathways in Southeast Asian countries. The research topics include, but are not limited to:

•      Theoretical explorations of scientific frameworks and components in general climate resilience studies;

•      Methodological development for assessing and/or modeling climate resilience in general;

•      Particular focus on social resilience to climate-related hazards, e.g. flood, heat, drought, and sea level rise in SE Asia;

•      Case studies of indigenous knowledge, local-, regional- or country-level perspectives of climate resilience in SE Asia;

•      Social, economic, technological, and political strategies for climate resilient development in SE Asia;

•     Practical implementation of resilience measures in various sectors targeting to SE Asia contexts, e.g., food and agriculture, water and energy, transportation, settlements, as well as mental and physical health.

Submissions must be completed via the following link: https://survey.ifkw.lmu.de/SalataWorkshop by Saturday April 20, 2024, at midnight US East Coast time. The organizing committee will evaluate and select submissions for oral or poster presentations. You will be notified about the acceptance decisions by April 30, 2024. Each oral presentation will have 20 minutes including discussions. Posters can be presented during the two full days.

The workshop offers the opportunity to publish a Special Issue in a prestigious journal on the topic of climate resilience studies. Full papers shall be committed in the submission to the workshop, and are due by October 31, 2024 to be submitted to the journal for review. Those who commit a full paper will be given priority for presentation at the workshop, though it is welcome to attend the workshop only (without full paper commitment). The presentation at the workshop and the full paper for the special issue do not have to be on the same topic, but they should be related.

Presenters are expected to attend the workshop physically at Harvard University. Online participation may be possible for listening purposes only. The workshop does not charge any fees and in principle doesn’t provide funding for participation. Participants must bear the associated costs themselves.

Participation onsite as non-presenters in the workshop is free, though registration is required and subject to capacity.  A separate registration will open in June. 

We look forward to welcoming all interested scholars to Harvard University soon. For further questions, please contact Dr. Liang Emlyn Yang at lyang@seas.harvard.edu.

See a formal pdf version of the workshop announcement.

Submission is required to complete the form below by Saturday April 20, 2024 at midnight of US East Coast time!