Nov 18, 2025 12:30 PM | The Climate Crises and How Indigenous Ecological Calendars Help Us Adapt
Posted in: Upcoming Events
This event examines how Indigenous ecological calendars—systems of timekeeping grounded in the relationships between people, place, and seasonal change—help communities adapt to the ongoing climate crisis. Dr. Karim-Aly Kassam draws on his research with Indigenous peoples across the Arctic, Asia, and North America to show how these calendars function as living knowledge systems that synchronize ecological rhythms with social practices, strengthening community resilience in the face of environmental uncertainty. He emphasizes that effective climate adaptation requires moving beyond one-size-fits-all approaches toward locally grounded strategies that value Indigenous ecological knowledge. Through this perspective, ecological calendars emerge as “methodologies of hope,” reconnecting humanity to the natural world and inspiring inclusive, place-based practices for sustainable and ethical climate action.
Where: Dickson Hall, Room 178
Karim-Aly S. Kassam is the International Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where he teaches in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. His research examines the interconnections between human and ecological systems, focusing on Indigenous knowledge, food sovereignty, sustainable livelihoods, and climate change adaptation across the Arctic, Boreal Forest, and the Pamir Mountains. At the core of Dr. Kassam’s work is a commitment to collaborative, community-based research that bridges scholarship and practice. His projects with Indigenous partners worldwide advance draw on methodology and a pedagogy of hope—a framework for building anticipatory capacity and fostering pluralism in the face of environmental uncertainty. Dr. Kassam has received numerous distinctions, including the Global Public Fellowship (2020), the University of Bayreuth International Senior Fellowship (2017), and the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Diversity Award (2013). Before joining Cornell, he taught at the University of Calgary, where he founded the Theme School in Northern Planning and Development Studies and was named one of Alberta’s 50 most influential people by Venture Magazine.
