ANU School of Sociology Seminar Series: Dr Jennifer Mae Hamilton (UNE)

In How to weather together: feminist practice for climate change (2026) Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Hamilton outline a theoretical framework for climate adaptation and set of complementary practices. On September 28, Jen Hamilton will be at the ANU to discuss this project in a talk and offer a practice-based workshop. 12-1pm: Book Talk (in-person and online) In this talk, Jen will sketch out the theoretical foundations of the project drawing on mix of queer, feminist and anti-colonial ethics, as well as diverse economies and social practice theories of infrastructure. Overall, the project critiques and deconstructs common paradigms of adaptation, while taking a generative ethical stance on the nature of our alternative proposition: we ultimately argue that any address of climate change needs to be tending towards the redistribution of shelter and vulnerability. Weathering is a concept and method for doing this kind of work. Jen will also share some of the specific ways their work is developing in both creative and community practice: the Community Weathering Station (CoWS), Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA) and more recent part-time studies in Shiatsu and east Asian medicine. Some books will be available for sale as well! 2-4pm: Workshop & Afternoon Tea (in-person only) The CoWS Stall will be set up on ANU Campus and be a temporary site for a practice-led workshop exploring three of the practices described in the book: “lucky dip”, “close meteorology” and “weathering with & without”. These three practices are simple creative activities that open into critical discussions. At heart they are about the embodied qualities of the human/weather relation and the different objects/infrastructures and systems that we use to manage this relation. They can be useful for a range of different teaching purposes and research questions and projects: for a classroom workshop, for practice-led researchers as a little writing prompt or creative experiment, or for those in doing more traditional arts, humanities and social sciences research for new ways into their critical and conceptual challenges. Come join us for a cup of tea and play in the weeds of these ideas for a little while. Be sure to dress appropriately for the weather! Numbers limited. About the speaker: Jennifer Mae Hamilton lives and works on Anaiwan Country as Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies at UNE, and is also a curator and community organiser. Her research explores climate change adaptation as an embodied process from a queer, feminist and anti-colonial perspective, using creative practice methods, community economies frameworks and close textual analysis. Her most recently publications are "Modes of Thermoregulation" TEXT (2026) and co-authored with Astrida Neimanis, How to weather together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change (Bloomsbury Academic: London, 2026). In 2026 she’s the convenor of grassroots community transition organisation Sustainable Living Armidale, curated the group exhibition How to weather together at New England Regional Art Museum and is slowly studying shiatsu and east Asian medicine.