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NEWS RELEASE
April 13, 2009
Contact: Cynthia Quinn, (808) 956-6545
School of Law, UH Manoa
UH Law School Celebrates Earth W eek w ith free public lecture:
“Helping Vulnerable Com m unities Adapt to Clim ate Change”
by Director of its new Center for Island Clim ate Adaptation and Policy
Associate Professor M ax ine Burkett
HONOLULU – The William S. Richardson School of Law’s Environmental Law Program
and its Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP) partners invite you to
celebrate Earth Week by joining us for an exciting climate change public lecture on
Monday April 20, at 5:30 p.m. in Law School Classroom 2. The featured speaker is the
Center’s new director and associate professor of law Maxine Burkett who will present
“Helping Vulnerable Communities Adapt to Climate Change”. A reception will
immediately follow in the courtyard. This lecture is free and open to the public.
Professor Burkett attended Williams College and Exeter College, Oxford University, and
received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California,
Berkeley. Professor Burkett’s courses include Torts, Climate Change Law and Policy,
Environmental Law, Race and American Law, and International Development. She has
written in the area of Race, Reparations, and Environmental Justice. Currently, her work
focuses on “Climate Justice,” writing on the disparate impact of climate change on poor
and of-color communities and the United States’ ethical and legal obligation to these
communities nationally and internationally. She has presented her research on Climate
Justice throughout the United States, West Africa, and the Caribbean. As the Director of
ICAP, she leads projects to address climate change law, policy, and planning for island
communities in Hawai’i, the Pacific region, and beyond.
The Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy facilitates a sustainable, climateconscious future for Hawai’i, the Pacific, and global island communities through
innovative research and real-world solutions to island decision-makers in the public and
private sectors. ICAP is an interdisciplinary partnership of the Law School’s
Environmental Law Program, Sea Grant, the College of Social Sciences, the
Hawai’inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the School of Ocean and Earth
Sciences and Technology. This lecture is co-sponsored by the Law School’s Ka Huli Ao
Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian
Studies and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
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