Summer Gray is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara, where she teaches courses on infrastructure, adaptation, and the environment.
Sometimes in April (2005). FUm by Raoul Peck. New York, NY: HBO Home Video, 2005. 140 minutes. Re... more Sometimes in April (2005). FUm by Raoul Peck. New York, NY: HBO Home Video, 2005. 140 minutes. Reviewed by Andrew Michael Lee, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Summer Marie Gray, University of California, Santa Barbara Raoul Peck's Sometimes in April (2005) analyzes, in ambitious detail, the horrific events that devastated millions of lives during the unprecedented 1994 outpour of terror and violence in Rwanda. These events, retrospectively recognized as genocide, are represented in complex ways, especially through a multilayered character-based dramatic narrative that carefully weaves together "a million true stories." This film, remarkably, shares the established tones and richness of his earlier endeavors, particularly Lumumba (2000), which has been regarded by some as one of the greatest political films ever made. Notably, it was Lumumba's success that caught the attention of HBO Films president, Colin Callender, who invited Peck to make a film about the Rwandan genocide. As part of his pre-production research, Peck traveled to Rwanda to listen to individual memories of the one hundred days of bloodletting. These harrowing first person-accounts convinced him of the need not just to bring their nuances to a global public by situating the events in a wider historical framework but to invite considerations of the real and symbolic import of those blighted days on humanity. By carefully juxtaposing facts and fiction, Peck makes Sometimes in April a cinematic mosaic that exquisitely lays out the vital pieces of a large and intricate puzzle. Put together, these pieces make powerful statements about the relationship between present and past, the importance of history, communal memory, and healing. Sometimes in April focuses on two brothers on opposite sides of the complex relationships between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. One brother, Augustin Muganza, is a soldier in the Hutu military, father of three, and husband of Jeanne, a Tutsi. His charismatic sibling, Honore, is a well-known public figure who spreads an extremist message of Hutu propaganda over Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), the Rwandan radio station that played such a nefarious role in fomenting the highly-charged atmosphere of hatred during the 1994 genocide. As tensions leading up to the conflict mount, Honore is radicalized by the heady ethnic chauvinism of fellow Hutu ideologues, while Augustin opposes the cancerous violence that he sees looming around the corner. The film artfully navigates, through flashbacks, the one-hundred day genocide and the post-conflict milieu of 2004. Augustin, a schoolteacher, receives a letter from his brother, who is on trial in Tanzania at an International Criminal Tribunal for his ostensible involvement in the genocide. Honore's request for a visit from his brother disturbs Augustin, who is torn at the prospect of seeing him after a decade of estrangement, more so, as it is later revealed, because Honore was indirectly involved in the murder of Augustine's wife and children. It is therefore with great inner turmoil that Augustin arranges a trip to see his brother. In their meeting, Augustin must face the past squarely in order to come to terms with the present. Sometimes in April is a carefully detailed portrayal of the unfolding genocide as experienced by Augustin and those around him. Peck provides a grim but evocative account of the extreme acts of violence committed upon Tutsi civilians by the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, the two Hutu militias responsible for much of the killing. As the film progresses, the death toll is virtually exponential, exacerbated by the relentless dehumanization of Tutsis on the airwaves of RTLM. Peck's film challenges the commonly-held, simplistic notions that mere were clear forces of "good" and "evil" in the Rwandan massacres, in contrast to Terry George's more mainstream Hotel Rwanda (2004). In the latter, religious, humanitarian, and non-Rwandan (i. ā¦
Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with two dozen young climate justice act... more Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with two dozen young climate justice activists at the U.N. climate summit COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, in November 2013, this research uses the concepts of āpolitical cultures of opposition and of creationā to analyze the political orientations, discourse, and actions of global climate justice activists attempting to impact the negotiation of a universal climate treaty. Capturing relationships among experience, emotions, ideology, idioms, and organization, the concepts of political cultures of opposition and of creation shed light on the ability of these actors to fashion social movements of their own making. Through an analysis of actions in which youth delegates from divergent political cultures within the global climate justice movement worked collectively to realize a common vision, the formation and frictions of the larger global climate movement is made more legible to observers.
In 2018, a rare high magnitude debris-flows catastrophically impacted Montecito, resulting in hum... more In 2018, a rare high magnitude debris-flows catastrophically impacted Montecito, resulting in human and material losses. Evacuations for rare natural hazards are complicated as residents have little or no experience with them. Therefore, understanding factors that influence evacuation choice for these rare debris-flows can help increase evacuation compliance and save lives. We employed mixed methods by using surveys and interviews. Data were collected after the disaster and addressed issues of evacuation behavior before and after the disaster. We employed Chi-squared, one-way Anova, and logistic regression to analyze the survey data, and we employed content analysis for the interviews. The evacuation choice did not significantly change before and after the disaster. Before the debris-flows, older respondents were more likely to evacuate. After, respondents who were worried about the debris-flows were more likely to evacuate. Residents who did not evacuate before and after the debris...
Marine justice is presented as a bridging concept and opportunity for scholars, activists, and po... more Marine justice is presented as a bridging concept and opportunity for scholars, activists, and policy-makers to combine differing methods of knowledge production and communication to promote and deepen justice in an era of global environmental change, sea level rise, overfishing, ocean acidification, and other coastal and marine issues. We open with an exploration of the historical connections between the study of seascapes and the emergence and development of environmental justice. We then discuss five conceptual domains-space, time, knowledge, participation in decision-making, and enforcement-in which attention to marine environments resonates with and expands environmental justice framings. Using a series of examples to illustrate how environmental justice and marine issues converge in scholarship and activism, we argue that this coming-together of concepts creates new avenues for research and inquiry.
Sometimes in April (2005). FUm by Raoul Peck. New York, NY: HBO Home Video, 2005. 140 minutes. Re... more Sometimes in April (2005). FUm by Raoul Peck. New York, NY: HBO Home Video, 2005. 140 minutes. Reviewed by Andrew Michael Lee, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Summer Marie Gray, University of California, Santa Barbara Raoul Peck's Sometimes in April (2005) analyzes, in ambitious detail, the horrific events that devastated millions of lives during the unprecedented 1994 outpour of terror and violence in Rwanda. These events, retrospectively recognized as genocide, are represented in complex ways, especially through a multilayered character-based dramatic narrative that carefully weaves together "a million true stories." This film, remarkably, shares the established tones and richness of his earlier endeavors, particularly Lumumba (2000), which has been regarded by some as one of the greatest political films ever made. Notably, it was Lumumba's success that caught the attention of HBO Films president, Colin Callender, who invited Peck to make a film about the Rwandan genocide. As part of his pre-production research, Peck traveled to Rwanda to listen to individual memories of the one hundred days of bloodletting. These harrowing first person-accounts convinced him of the need not just to bring their nuances to a global public by situating the events in a wider historical framework but to invite considerations of the real and symbolic import of those blighted days on humanity. By carefully juxtaposing facts and fiction, Peck makes Sometimes in April a cinematic mosaic that exquisitely lays out the vital pieces of a large and intricate puzzle. Put together, these pieces make powerful statements about the relationship between present and past, the importance of history, communal memory, and healing. Sometimes in April focuses on two brothers on opposite sides of the complex relationships between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. One brother, Augustin Muganza, is a soldier in the Hutu military, father of three, and husband of Jeanne, a Tutsi. His charismatic sibling, Honore, is a well-known public figure who spreads an extremist message of Hutu propaganda over Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), the Rwandan radio station that played such a nefarious role in fomenting the highly-charged atmosphere of hatred during the 1994 genocide. As tensions leading up to the conflict mount, Honore is radicalized by the heady ethnic chauvinism of fellow Hutu ideologues, while Augustin opposes the cancerous violence that he sees looming around the corner. The film artfully navigates, through flashbacks, the one-hundred day genocide and the post-conflict milieu of 2004. Augustin, a schoolteacher, receives a letter from his brother, who is on trial in Tanzania at an International Criminal Tribunal for his ostensible involvement in the genocide. Honore's request for a visit from his brother disturbs Augustin, who is torn at the prospect of seeing him after a decade of estrangement, more so, as it is later revealed, because Honore was indirectly involved in the murder of Augustine's wife and children. It is therefore with great inner turmoil that Augustin arranges a trip to see his brother. In their meeting, Augustin must face the past squarely in order to come to terms with the present. Sometimes in April is a carefully detailed portrayal of the unfolding genocide as experienced by Augustin and those around him. Peck provides a grim but evocative account of the extreme acts of violence committed upon Tutsi civilians by the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi, the two Hutu militias responsible for much of the killing. As the film progresses, the death toll is virtually exponential, exacerbated by the relentless dehumanization of Tutsis on the airwaves of RTLM. Peck's film challenges the commonly-held, simplistic notions that mere were clear forces of "good" and "evil" in the Rwandan massacres, in contrast to Terry George's more mainstream Hotel Rwanda (2004). In the latter, religious, humanitarian, and non-Rwandan (i. ā¦
Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with two dozen young climate justice act... more Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with two dozen young climate justice activists at the U.N. climate summit COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, in November 2013, this research uses the concepts of āpolitical cultures of opposition and of creationā to analyze the political orientations, discourse, and actions of global climate justice activists attempting to impact the negotiation of a universal climate treaty. Capturing relationships among experience, emotions, ideology, idioms, and organization, the concepts of political cultures of opposition and of creation shed light on the ability of these actors to fashion social movements of their own making. Through an analysis of actions in which youth delegates from divergent political cultures within the global climate justice movement worked collectively to realize a common vision, the formation and frictions of the larger global climate movement is made more legible to observers.
In 2018, a rare high magnitude debris-flows catastrophically impacted Montecito, resulting in hum... more In 2018, a rare high magnitude debris-flows catastrophically impacted Montecito, resulting in human and material losses. Evacuations for rare natural hazards are complicated as residents have little or no experience with them. Therefore, understanding factors that influence evacuation choice for these rare debris-flows can help increase evacuation compliance and save lives. We employed mixed methods by using surveys and interviews. Data were collected after the disaster and addressed issues of evacuation behavior before and after the disaster. We employed Chi-squared, one-way Anova, and logistic regression to analyze the survey data, and we employed content analysis for the interviews. The evacuation choice did not significantly change before and after the disaster. Before the debris-flows, older respondents were more likely to evacuate. After, respondents who were worried about the debris-flows were more likely to evacuate. Residents who did not evacuate before and after the debris...
Marine justice is presented as a bridging concept and opportunity for scholars, activists, and po... more Marine justice is presented as a bridging concept and opportunity for scholars, activists, and policy-makers to combine differing methods of knowledge production and communication to promote and deepen justice in an era of global environmental change, sea level rise, overfishing, ocean acidification, and other coastal and marine issues. We open with an exploration of the historical connections between the study of seascapes and the emergence and development of environmental justice. We then discuss five conceptual domains-space, time, knowledge, participation in decision-making, and enforcement-in which attention to marine environments resonates with and expands environmental justice framings. Using a series of examples to illustrate how environmental justice and marine issues converge in scholarship and activism, we argue that this coming-together of concepts creates new avenues for research and inquiry.
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Papers by Summer Gray