UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State's third annual Sustainability Summit will feature a keynote address by author and activist Lisa Silvestri, associate teaching professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State. The keynote, from 5-6 p.m. on April 23, is part of a day of programming at University Park that begins at noon and ends at 8:30 p.m., centered around a community-building theme: “where sustainability lives, communities thrive.”
Silvestri is the author of multiple books, including her most recent title, “Peace by Peace: Risking Public Action, Creating Social Change.” The book highlights examples of everyday people tackling issues in their communities, according to Silvestri, and aims to offer hope to many who may feel stuck or paralyzed to act in the face of ecological or societal issues. Drawing from her work, Silvestri will use her time at the Sustainability Summit to create a dialogue around the role of relationships and place in creating action.
Silvestri has contributed writing to several outlets including the Washington Post and New York Times, and has spoken at the 92nd Street Y and South by Southwest. Her scholarship appears in journals including New Media & Society, Memory Studies, Visual Communication Quarterly, The International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Rhetoric and Public Affairs.
The daylong Sustainability Summit on April 23 features afternoon tabling on the HUB-Robeson lawn from noon until 3 p.m. and in Alumni Hall from 3-4 p.m. Evening activities include a climate action workshop from 4-5 p.m., Silvestri’s keynote from 5-6 p.m., a meal and awards from 6-7 p.m., and a screening of the documentary film "Desert Phosfate," and a Q&A with artist and filmmaker Mohamed Sleiman Labat from 7-8:30 p.m.