BY ANNA BARNES & SHEALYN PAULIS
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Michigan State University (MSU) will co-organize an international symposium on environmental communication and democracy on May 4, 2026, in Chía, Colombia.
Official poster of the symposium
The event, Democracy and Environmental Communication in Latin America, hosted at the Universidad de La Sabana, is the second symposium of the Red Latinoamericana de Estudios en Comunicación Ambiental (Red LECA). The event follows the network’s inaugural symposium held last year in East Lansing, Michigan.
The symposium will examine counter-hegemonic perspectives in research at the intersection of democratic processes and environmental communication, with particular attention to the underrepresentation of Latin American perspectives in international academic spaces. Systematic barriers, such as language and emphasis on work produced in the Global North, prevent researchers from being included in global conversations. Additionally, the availability of funding is a stark contrast for academics in the Global South compared to their counterparts.
The meeting will also mark the official launch of RedLECA, an international network connecting Latin American environmental communication scholars to develop research projects, share teaching innovations, facilitate the relationship between academics and practitioners and contribute to societal change.
Through collaboration and the uplifting of these perspectives, the RedLECA network aims to build a more inclusive space for environmental communication research, said founding member and professor of environmental journalism at MSU, Dr. Bruno Takahashi.
The symposium will open with a keynote by Dr. Eduardo Gudynas, a leading scholar and author of numerous books on global justice and alternative sustainable pathways based on the rights of nature. Gudynas’s presentation, Other Policies: Alternatives in Democracy and Rights in the Face of Socio-Environmental Crisis, will precede three panels covering popular environmental communication and direct democracy; the democratization of environmental science and socio-technical controversies; and environmental journalism, democracy and disinformation.
María Isabel Torres, program director at Mongabay Latam will be the second keynote speaker. Torres has spent much of her career focusing on environmental journalism, most recently building a multicultural team spanning seven Latin American countries at Mongabay Latam.
Red LECA and the symposium are supported by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at MSU, the Universidad de La Sabana, and the Climate and Land Use Alliance.
Following the symposium, Red LECA members will take part in a two-day workshop to further define the network’s collaborative initiatives and long-term goals. More information can be found on the symposium website.
