Vanessa Raditz

My research explores the cultural geographies of queer ecojustice movements. Using collaborative documentary film and other critical visual methodologies, I address the contextual vulnerability of multiply-marginalized queer, trans, and two-spirit communities to climate change disasters, as well as the lessons for the climate justice movement that come from our communities' resilience and histories of struggle for liberation.

I am inspired by decolonial and abolitionist theories that center the healing and reweaving of mind, body, spirit, land, community, place, and home in the collective liberation of people and the planet. Using queer as both verb and noun, I seek to understand the ontology, epistemology and praxis of the queer ecojustice movement: what are the worldviews, ways of knowing, theories, and strategies for the transformation of the world that emerge from queer ecojustice organizers whose embodiments and actions disrupt normative status-quo ways of knowing and being?

I believe this work must be done in collaboration and accompaniment with other queer, trans, and two-spirit people on the frontline of disaster and the forefronts of change. I prioritize questions that emerge from my relationships in community and I seek collaborative methods that engage a climate justice praxis through the research.