KINGSTON, R.I. – May 27, 2025 – Author Julian Agyeman will speak at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography, Tuesday, June 10, 3:30 p.m., as part of the URI Metcalf Institute’s annual public lecture series. Agyeman will deliver the 2025 Leeson Lecture, part of Metcalf’s Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists, which will take place in the Corless Auditorium at URI’s Narragansett Bay Campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Agyeman, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, will discuss “Just Sustainabilities in Policy, Planning and Practice.” His research focuses on environmental and food justice and the nexus of food and immigration, but he consults and presents around the world.

Metcalf Executive Director Fara Warner says Agyeman’s visit is part of Metcalf’s commitment to advance public understanding of climate and environmental science to help individuals and organizations take action to help adapt to a changing world.

“This year, the annual workshop is focused on food systems and how they are being affected by climate and environmental change,” she says. “We hope that by bringing together scientists, journalists, science communicators, and the public we can learn how our changing climate will affect the ways in which we feed and nurture ourselves and our communities.”

Agyeman’s work examines the relationships between humans and the urban environment and their effects on public policy and planning processes and outcomes. He is the author, co-author or co-editor of 13 books, including Sacred Civics: Building Seven Generation Cities; Food Trucks, Cultural Identity, and Social Justice; Incomplete Streets; Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union; and Sharing Cities (one of Nature’s Top 20 Books of 2015).

His wide-ranging and influential journal articles include “Mind the Gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior?” (2002), the single most cited journal article by an urban planning academic in North America. Complementing his academic writing, he publishes regularly in popular media such as The Guardian, The Boston Globe, TIME and The Conversation.

URI’s Metcalf Institute is a global leader in professional development training and programs for public audiences, benefitting more than 3,200 journalists, scientists, and science communicators, and their audiences, since 1998. Graduates of the Metcalf Institute annual journalism program report for the Los Angeles Times, KQED, the Washington Post, New York Times, Grist, Outside, Science News, the Providence Journal, and other leading publications. This year’s 2025 fellows hail from Texas, Jamaica, Miami, Ohio, California, New Hampshire, London, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and the Gulf Coast. The Institute received more than 120 applications from 32 countries, competing for 10 fellowship slots in this year’s Annual Workshop for Journalists.

The annual Leeson Lecture was established in 2019 in honor of Metcalf Institute advisory board member Robert Leeson Jr., in recognition of his outstanding service and dedication to environmental causes.

Visit here for details on Julian Agyeman’s visit. Registration is requested but not required. Learn more about Metcalf’s upcoming programs here or email metcalf@uri.edu with questions. Get on the Metcalf newsletter list for updates here.