Lake Baikal is a global treasure, containing one-fifth of Earth's surface freshwater and home to thousands of unique endemic species. Locals have long appreciated the lake and striven to protect it from harm. This talk will explain how Baikal activism has changed across social-political-economic contexts. In doing so, it will elucidate a global field of power relationships between governments, multinational corporations, transnational activist groups, and local civil society.

Kate Pride Brown is an environmental and political sociologist whose research focuses on a range of issues, including environmental activism in Russia and conservation policy in the United States. Her book, Saving the Sacred Sea: The Power of Civil Society in an Age of Authoritarianism and Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2018), examines the conflict between local and transnational environmentalists, multinational corporations, and the Russian government over the future of Lake Baikal, the largest, deepest and oldest freshwater lake on Earth. 

Please join us for tea before the event.

Free and open to the public

Sponsored by the Russian Department, Sociology Department, The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and the Leslie Center for the Humanities