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Project: “Re-Staging Climate Assemblies” (British Academy Knowledge Frontiers KF25\100465) Hosted by: Junior Professor Dr. Riccarda Flemmer and PhD candidate Verena Gresz The event “Holding the Ruins, Shaping the Future” brought together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, artists, and practitioners to explore the intersections of climate politics, participatory governance, and arts-based methods. Its central aim was to foster critical reflection on knowledge production and to experiment with innovative, transdisciplinary approaches to climate governance as part of the collaborative research project “Re-Staging Climate Assemblies” (British Academy Knowledge Frontiers) between the University of Tübingen and University of Sheffield. Day 1: June 9, 2026 The event opened with a welcome from the hosts, Junior Professor Dr. Riccarda Flemmer and PhD candidate Verena Gresz, who introduced the thematic focus and structure of the program. They outlined how the event brought together three interconnected themes: Loss and Damage, climate assemblies, and plural ways of knowing environmental harm. Loss and Damage addresses the irreversible harms that climate change inflicts on both human and non-human nature, while climate assemblies create participatory spaces in which these harms can be collectively recognised, deliberated, and addressed, even when they are not explicitly framed as Loss and Damage. Plural ways of knowing strengthen both approaches by bringing scientific, Indigenous, local, and lived perspectives into dialogue, expanding how environmental harm, justice, and repair are understood. Together, these themes connect research on international climate politics, the Rights of Nature, human and Indigenous rights, and green criminology, while fostering collaboration between journalism, activism, and academia to develop more inclusive and democratic approaches to climate governance. The first presentation was delivered by Brazilian researcher Juliana Melo, who presented her project proposal titled “When Water Governs Us - Rights of Nature and the Transformation of Water Governance”. Juliana plans to examine how recognising water bodies as legal subjects reshapes environmental governance, contrasting Rights of Nature cases from Latin America and Europe. This was followed by Laura Schimmöller’s presentation of her doctoral thesis on “Ontological Diplomacy Across Plural Natures in United Nations Biodiversity Governance.” Her work analyses how biodiversity governance navigates plural conceptions of nature in policy-making, scientific debates and rights-based mobilisations, highlighting the role of “ontological diplomacy” in global environmental politics. Day 2: June 10, 2026 On Wednesday morning, Verena Gresz presented her PhD project, “Arts-Based Engagement with Global Climate Governance - Loss and Damage in UNFCCC Climate Negotiations and How to Know About It” in which she explores how arts-based approaches can help to know, decide and act upon harm in climate politics. Mexican journalist Adriana Navarro Ramírez currently residing in Tübingen presented the current state of her research on “A Land in Resistance: The Latin American Mirror and Journalism Facing Power.” which investigates environmental crimes in Mexico and the precarious working conditions of environmental journalists. In the afternoon, the research teams from the University of Tübingen and the University of Sheffield of the project “Re-Staging Climate Assemblies” (British Academy Knowledge Frontiers) with the creative partners from the Performing Arts Collective Tübingen PACT and Theater of the Oppressed expert Caren Niemann exchanged perspectives on the research workshops held separately in both cities. The project engages young adults with diaspora backgrounds to re-imagine the format of climate assemblies with embodiment- and theater-based methods. The day concluded with a public performance in the LTT, which opened with a brief academic introduction by the research teams, outlining the project and the concept of climate citizen assemblies. Then, Jakob Jautz and Caren Niemann from the Tübingen creative team invited the audience and the academic teams to take the stage and experiment with theater-based methods firsthand. On the stage, we played the “Climate Zombie” game, followed by embodied sociograms and figure theater. These activities recreated key elements of the research workshops and ended with watching the project film together. In the subsequent discussion the project teams and the audience shared feedback on their experiences and reflected on the potential of these creative, practice-oriented approaches for the participation in and redesign of climate assemblies.
Day 3: June 11, 2026 On Thursday, the program centered on methodological reflection and practical experimentation with scenario-making. The teams from Sheffield and Tübingen presented and discussed their ongoing conceptual, methodological and policy-oriented work emerging from the project “Re-Staging Climate Assemblies”. Based on these insights, all participants of the summer school were invited to take part in a scenario-building workshop led by the Sheffield team, using storytelling techniques to collaboratively construct narratives around climate futures. This exercise illustrated how diverse perspectives contribute to layered processes of co-creation and highlighted the importance of inclusive participation. In the afternoon Global Encounters fellow Professor Amaya Querejazu of the Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia presented her project on “Making Peace with Nature”. In her ongoing research, Amaya critically examines dominant narratives of human-to-nature relations and searches for decolonial and pluriversal spaces of encounter in international arenas. The event concluded with a round of reflection, inviting participants to share key insights and open questions across the three themes. Discussions on Loss and Damage emphasised that responses to climate harm should extend beyond documenting loss to include healing, mourning, coping, and collective sense-making, while remaining attentive to the difficult questions of addressing harm and making its consequences tangible. Reflections on Climate Assemblies highlighted democracy as a lived practice of co-creation rather than mere representation, stressing the need for creative and participatory methods, while also grappling with challenges such as dissent, exclusion, and the relationship between academia and communities. Conversations on plural ways of knowing underscored the importance of experience, emotion, artistic interventions, and process-oriented thinking in generating knowledge, prompting broader questions about who is recognised as an expert, what counts as legitimate knowledge, and how diverse forms of knowing can be meaningfully included without appropriation. The discussion concluded with several shared questions for future work, including how to foster collective sense-making, strike the right balance between urgency and hope, design inclusive invitations to participation, manage expectations, and engage Indigenous perspectives respectfully and collaboratively.
Day 4: June 12, 2026 The final day concluded with a joint meeting involving the UK creative team, providing a space for forward-looking exchange on the next steps within the “Re-Staging Climate Assemblies” project. The discussion focused on strengthening collaboration between researchers and practitioners, refining methodological approaches, and developing shared perspectives for the project’s future trajectory. Those interested in the “Re-Staging Climate Assemblies” project are invited to explore the already developed interactive online lexicon (https://climreassembly.sheffield.ac.uk/define). This resource offers a visual and engaging way to approach the concept of climate assemblies, enabling users to interact with key ideas and develop a broader, more accessible understanding of their structures and functions.
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