Response to COVID-19: Please check here for an update on the next lecture, stating whether we will be solely online or using a hybrid approach of in-person with an online option.
Format for next lecture: online or in-person (UConn Avery Point)
Per UConn guidelines, masking is not required.
We ask that all lecture attendees refrain from attending in-person if you are feeling ill or have been exposed to a virus (Covid, Flu, RSV) within the past 10 days.
Public lectures on coastal issues.
Please join us for our 29th season. This annual lecture series spans the breadth of human interactions with coastal waters, including speakers from the natural and social sciences as well as arts and humanities.
Lecture series is FREE and open to the public.
Lectures begin at 7:30 p.m.
A link to the online lecture is included below. Or join us in-person!
This series is sponsored by Connecticut Sea Grant College Program, Ørsted, UConn Department of Marine Sciences, UConn Maritime Studies Program and the UConn Avery Point Campus Director’s Office.
For more information or to be added to our email list, send an email to CoastalPerspectives@uconn.edu.
Want to Join us at the Live Event, In-Person?
The event is hosted in the Avery Point Auditorium (AUD): Directions | Campus Map.
Parking is free after 5 p.m.; closest lots are near the library (LIB) or in Lot B.
Enter from the Academic Building main entrance, the auditorium is on second floor at the end of the hall (mobility-disabled accessible); or enter through or near the Student Center and go up two flights of stairs. Campus Map
Want to Join the Online Lecture?
All lectures will be offered online and in-person.
Click to sign on: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconn-cmr/j.php?MTID=mf96ccc6cfb6b55a9878c80cd5fc05891
- Meeting number (access code): 2863 991 6520
- Event password: coastal
- Join the audio conference only:
- +1-415-655-0002 US Toll
- Use meeting number (access code) shown above.
Guidance on using Webex (our online platform). JPG PDF
Trouble-shooting Tips
- The best online experience is achieved by downloading the app (versus using the online browser option).
- Having trouble logging in? Try using a different web browser – Chrome or Firefox are recommended by Webex.
- Having audio issues? Watch the presentation on your computer and use a phone to call-in for the audio.
- Can’t hear? Confirm that the speakers on your computer are unmuted (speaker icon should not have an “x” over it).
- When you sign on, you will be muted and video will be disabled – you will not be able to turn them on. If you have a question, you may type in the Chat box or you can request to be unmuted in the Chat box – we’d love to hear your voice, so please feel free to make this request! (You may also turn on your video during the Q&A period, upon request.)
2025 Lecture Highlights
Tuesday, February 11, 2025; 7:30 p.m.
Metin Coşgel, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, University of Connecticut
Did racial diversity improve the economic performance of New England whaling ships?
This talk explores the complex relationship between racial diversity and team performance, drawing on extensive data from the American offshore whaling industry. Despite widespread promotion of workforce diversity by various organizations, empirical evidence supporting its positive effects on performance has been limited and inconclusive.
The American whaling industry, a significant economic force in coastal New England from colonial times through the early 20th century, provides a unique historical context for this analysis. Whaling crews were notably multiracial and highly diverse, offering a rich dataset for examining the impact of diversity on team outcomes.
Our study utilizes a comprehensive array of historical sources, including crew lists, American Offshore Whaling Logbook and Voyages databases, U.S. Federal Census enumeration schedules, Seamen’s Protection Certificate Database, and various records of Native American whalemen. The analysis reveals a U-shaped relationship between racial diversity and team performance, measured by whaling revenues. Initially, increased diversity led to a sharp decline in output value. However, at higher levels of racial heterogeneity, substantial gains were observed. This non-linear effect can be attributed to two opposing mechanisms. On one hand, more heterogeneous crews experienced a higher incidence of conflicts, negatively impacting performance. On the other hand, racial diversity positively influenced the whalemen’s creativity, enhancing their ability to strike and process whales. This research contributes to our understanding of diversity’s nuanced effects on team performance, offering historical insights that remain relevant in today’s diverse work environments.
click here for more information
View the recorded lecture (check back after the event…)
Tuesday, February 25, 2025; 7:30 p.m.
Bryce DuBois, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of New Haven and Coordinator of the M.A. Program in Marine Policy and Management
The Case for Human / Coastal Shorebird Coexistence: Why the Public Cultures of Shorelines Matter for Equitable Climate Resilience
Beaches, the foreshore, are legally defined as public land owned by no one. As one of few spaces with such legal protections, they afford coastal communities a uniquely protected public space where the potential for cultural diversity, expression and social sustainability is potentially maintained. And yet, in the 20th Century beaches and coastlines have in some places industrialized and in other places become privatized, commodified, and enclosed for real estate and tourism interests. These forms of privatization have included processes of racial and class marginalization that have enclosed beach spaces for mostly wealthy, white homeowners. This talk looks closely at what is at stake in maintaining public access and fostering social sustainability in beaches and similarly investigates the more recent turn towards valuing coastal ecologies for their role in supporting coastal resilience. I will use the case of Rockaway Beach, NYC, to describe how this socioecological emphasis, what is called post-politization, is not a new turn for public access, but rather continues a trend towards enclosure of these dear public commons. I will conclude with an example of the politics over piping plover protection that is occurring on Rockaway Beach and discuss what can be done to foster more just, equitable climate resilient futures for beach dependent human- and more-than-human-communities.
click here for more information
View the recorded lecture (check back after the event…)
Tuesday, March 11, 2025; 7:30 p.m.
Wellington Castellucci Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Human Science at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia & Assistant Professor of Latin American History at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia, Brazil
Whalemen Go Down from the North: The History of the North American Whale Hunt in the South Atlantic, Especially in Brazilian Cost. 1760 to 1850
click here for more information
View the recorded lecture (check back after the event…)
Tuesday, March 25, 2025; 7:30 p.m.
Courtney J. Andersen, owner – Traditional Ship Rigging, https://www.courtneyjohnandersen.com/
Traditional Rigging in the 21st Century
Courtney Andersen will explore the evolution of sailing ship materials and designs over the pre-Industrial age, and then illustrate how rapidly materials have changed after WW2, as synthetics took over the industry. He will discuss what this means for today’s riggers. Using various museum ships and movie sets as examples, he will also address the “green” aspects of the old ways versus a dependency on oil-based products.
click here for more information
View the recorded lecture (check back after the event…)
Tuesday, April 8, 2025; 7:30 p.m.
Giovanna McClenachan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University
Human-natural systems and the climate resilience of coastal communities
Human-natural systems along the coast are at risk from climate change impacts of flooding (ocean, river, and precipitation driven) and extreme heat. These impacts are disproportionally felt by low-income neighborhoods and marginalized ethnicized and racialized (MER) communities, but these communities are rarely targeted for resilience solutions. Social infrastructure, like parks, community centers, and libraries, has been shown to increase the climate resilience by strengthening communal bonds and exchange of knowledge. Nature-based social infrastructure (NBSI), like parks, community gardens, and beaches, may provide added ecological benefits such as flooding and extreme heat mitigation. This talk will discuss drivers of coastal change and resilience and how NBSI could be part of the solution to increasing the social and ecological resilience of all communities that climate change will impact.
click here for more information
View the recorded lecture (check back after the event…)
Tuesday, April 22, 2025; 7:30 p.m.
Thomas Halaczinsky, filmmaker | producer | photographer | writer
Plum Island – Telling the Story of One of the Most Mysterious Islands on the Eastern Seaboard
Plum Island, located just 1.5 miles off Orient Point on the eastern tip of Long Island’s North Fork and 9 miles as the crow flies from the Connecticut shore, is most likely one of the most mysterious islands on the Eastern Seaboard. For more than 100 years, the 840-acre island has belonged to the federal government, housed an army fort, and was part of the coastal defense system protecting the back entry through Long Island Sound to New York City. In 1948, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps took over the island when Congress allocated $30 million—$390 million in 2025 dollars—to prepare the country for possible biological war. However, in 1954, the Department of Agriculture took over the laboratory—infamously known as Lab 257—focusing on developing vaccines against highly contagious animal diseases like foot-and-mouth disease. After more than six decades, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center bids farewell to Plum Island. The 2008 legislation regulating the move of the laboratory called for selling the island at auction to the highest bidder. A coalition of over 120 organizations of environmentalists, conservationists, historical societies, and impassioned citizens rallied to defy the sale and safeguard the island’s legacy. Meanwhile, the Montaukett Indian Nation, once the owner of the island, is fighting for state recognition. In 2018, documentary filmmaker Thomas Halaczinsky started to document the fight to preserve Plum Island. The film is currently in post-production. As the filmmaker navigates the intricate tapestry of Plum Island, where local stories echo through time, the documentary uncovers a microcosmic American story. The talk offers a behind-the-scenes look at the production process.
click here for more information
View the recorded lecture (check back after the event…)
Past lectures…
2024 Season
Tuesday, February 6, 2024; 7:30 p.m.; Chris Sarro, Marine Scientist, Ørsted and Robert Soden, Permit Manager, Ørsted; The Development, Construction and Fisheries Monitoring of Orsted’s South Fork Wind Farm; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 12 minutes)
Tuesday, February 20, 2024; 7:30 p.m.; Patrick Lynch, artist | author | designer | photographer; A Tale of Two Estuaries; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 5 minutes)
Tuesday, March 5, 2024; 7:30 p.m.; Maura Coughlin, Ph.D., Department of Art + Design, Northeastern University; Ramshackle Housing and the Erasure of Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Fishing Communities; View the recorded lecture (54 minutes)
Tuesday, March 19, 2024; 7:30 p.m.; Samantha Siedlecki, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut; Beyond the Surface: Forecasting Ocean Acidification and Other Stressors Facing Marine Resources in a Changing Climate; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 10 minutes)
Tuesday, April 2, 2024; 7:30 p.m.; Michaela J. Thompson, Ph.D., Sustainability & Environmental Management, Harvard Extension School; Shadows in the Water: What Sharks Tell Us About Ourselves; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 14 minutes)
Tuesday, April 16, 2024; 7:30 p.m.; James T. Carlton, Ph.D., Professor of Marine Sciences Emeritus at Williams College and Director Emeritus of the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program and Krystal Rose, M.F.A., Curator of Collections, Mystic Seaport Museum; Spineless: The Magical World of Marine Invertebrates, and Perspectives on our Finger on the Pulse of Changes in Coastal Invertebrate Diversity; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 8 min)
2023 Season
Tuesday, February 7, 2023; 7:30 p.m.; Molly James, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut; Harmony of Nature – fostering connection to the environment through music; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 32 min)
Tuesday, February 21, 2023; 7:30 p.m.; Tim Pettee, Founder and President, Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society Inc.; Preserving Our Maritime History: The Epic Restoration and Bright Future of Greens Ledge Light; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 57 min)
Tuesday, March 7, 2023; 7:30 p.m.; Timothy Dale Walker, Ph.D.; Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; Guest Investigator, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Uncovering and Recentering the Maritime Underground Railroad; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 10 min)
Tuesday, March 21, 2023; 7:30 p.m.; Sarah Porter, Filmmaker; Horseshoe Crabs: How 350 Million Year Old Sea Creatures Are Vital to Our Survival; View the recorded lecture (52 minutes)
Tuesday, April 4, 2023; 7:30 p.m.; Tessa L. Getchis, Connecticut Sea Grant, University of Connecticut; Department of Extension, University of Connecticut and Zofia A. Baumann, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut; Ensuring the Future Viability of Connecticut’s Natural Oyster Beds; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 11 minutes)
Tuesday, April 18, 2023; 7:30 p.m., sTo Len, Department of Sanitation Artist in Residence, NY; The Art of Water, Waste, and Wonder
2022 Season:
Tuesday, February 7, 2022; 7:30 p.m.; Kris Ohleth, Director, Special Initiative on Offshore Wind; David Bidwell, Associate Professor, Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island; Affiliate Scholar, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies–Potsdam; moderator: Angela Silva, Social Scientist- Fisheries & Offshore Wind, ECS Federal, Inc. In support of: NOAA Fisheries, NEFSC, Social Sciences Branch; Examining the potential opportunities and challenges for New England’s emerging offshore wind industry; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 28 minutes)
Tuesday, February 22, 2022; 7:30 p.m.; Kimia Shahi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, University of Southern California & currently serves as Kernan Brothers Environmental Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment; “Uncertain Contours”: Coasts at the Confluence of Science and Art in 19th-century America; View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 23 minutes)
Tuesday, March 8, 2022; 7:30 p.m.; Heidi Dierssen, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut; Rethinking the Blue Marble – the Colour of the Sea and Sky; View the recorded lecture. (1 hour, missing first few minutes)
Tuesday, March 22, 2022; 7:30 p.m.; Akeia de Barros Gomes, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories, Mystic Seaport Museum & Visiting Scholar, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University; Maritime Connections, Maritime Voices: African and Native American Histories of New England;View the recorded lecture (1 hour, 4 minutes)
Tuesday, April 5, 2022; 7:30 p.m.; Jason Oliver Chang, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies and Director of the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut; Alexis Dudden, Ph.D., Professor of History at the University of Connecticut; CARGO – Connecticut’s Coolie History in Graphic Media and Public School Curriculum; View the recorded lecture. (59 minutes)
Tuesday, April 19, 2022; 7:30 p.m. ; James M. Lindgren, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, History Department, SUNY Plattsburgh; Blue Water Ports, Global Resources, and Commercial Empires: The Origins of the Nation’s Major Maritime Museums
2021 Season:
Tuesday, February 9, 2021; 7:30 p.m.; Skip Finley, Author | Historian | Speaker; A Voyage of Discovery with Skip Finley; Play recording (missing first 15 minutes)
Tuesday, February 23, 2021; 7:30 p.m.; Andrew Kahrl, Ph.D., Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Virginia; The Struggle to Reclaim Connecticut’s Coastal Commons; Play recording (1 hour, 23 minutes)
Tuesday, March 9, 2021; 7:30 p.m.; Chris Bowser, M.S., NYSDEC Hudson River Estuary Program and the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve; The Hudson River Eel Project: Fish Conservation through Community Engagement; Play recording (1 hour, 20 minutes)
Tuesday, March 23, 2021; 7:30 p.m.; Beverly Goodman, Ph.D., Department Head, Department of Marine Geosciences, Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa; Ancient Tsunamis in the Mediterranean: How Past Disasters Save Lives Today; Play recording (1 hour, 16 minutes)
Tuesday, April 6, 2021; 7:30 p.m.; Prakash Kashwan, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Co-Director of the Research Program on Economic and Social Rights, Human Rights Institute, University of Connecticut; Followed by a panel discussion with: Syma Ebbin, Ph.D., Research Coordinator, Connecticut Sea Grant College Program & Melva Treviño Peña, Ph.D., Department of Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island; Confronting Issues of (In)Justice in Environmental and Resource Governance; Play recording (1 hour, 6 minutes)
Tuesday, April 20, 2021; 7:30 p.m.; Margaret Gibson; Connecticut State Poet Laureate, Prof. Emerita, UConn & David K. Leff; Poet, Lecturer, Former Deputy Commissioner of CT DEEP; Rousing the Ecological Imagination Through Poetry; Play recording (1 hour, 25 minutes)
2020 Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series
2019 Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series
2018 Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series
2017 Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series
2016 Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series
2015 Coastal Perspectives Lecture Series