Join us next Thursday for the Baker Center Interdisciplinary Group on Energy 
and Environmental Policy Forum, which will take place on Thursday, February 23 
at 3.30 pm in the Toyota Auditorium in the Baker Center.

Maxine Burkett, from University of Hawai’i will give a 45 minute presentation and 
then lead a discussion with participants. Maxine will be appearing via live 
weblink.  Her talk is titled:  

The Nation Ex-Situ: On Climate Change, Deterritorialized Nationhood and the 
Post-Climate Era

Description: It is plausible that the impacts of climate change will render 
certain nation-states uninhabitable before the close of the century. While this 
may be the fate of a small number of those nation-states most vulnerable to 
climate change, its implications for the evolution of statehood and international 
law in a “post-climate” regime is potentially seismic. Professor Burkett argues 
that international law could accommodate an entirely new category of 
international actors, the Nation Ex-Situ. Professor Burkett introduces the notion 
of a post-climate era, in which the very structure of human systems—be they 
legal, economic, or socio-political—are irrevocably changed and ever-changing.

Maxine Burkett is Associate Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson 
School of Law at University of Hawai‘i. Her current research examines "climate 
justice” and the disparate impact of climate change on vulnerable communities 
in the United States and globally. Maxine is the inaugural Director of the Center 
for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy, which has projects addressing climate 
change law, policy, and planning for island communities in Hawai‘i, the Pacific 
region, and beyond.
 
The Baker Center discussion forum is an opportunity for academics to share 
their research findings to a broad set of academics, researchers, and students 
from outside their own discipline but who have a common interest in 
environmental and energy issues. For more information about the Baker Center 
Interdisciplinary Group on Energy and Environmental Policy visit the forum’s 
website: http://web.utk.edu/~jlarivi1/bcinter.html. 

Please join us for what promises to be a very interesting discussion and 
presentation.

Paul Armsworth, College of Arts and Sciences
Jacob LaRiviere, College of Business Administration 
Becky Jacobs, College of Law
Chris Clark, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources