Image from Professor Wilde’s Twitter Account @flyingless.

On Friday April 28, 2017, Professor Parke Wilde from the Friedman School—in collaboration with Tufts Professors Richard Auner in Music and Ani Patel in Psychology, graduate students Mehreen Ismail, Victoria Chase, and Ola Ozernov-Palchik, and Professor Mary Farbood from NYU, Andrea Norton from Beth Israel Deaconess, graduate students Maximilian Burkard and Nils Meyer Kahlen, and Professor Richard Parncutt in Graz, Austria—put on the first international flyingless conference called the Global Arts and Psychology Seminar (GAPS). This event was created with support from David Kahle, the Chief Information Officer; Tina Woolston, the Director of the Office of Sustainability; and Bill O’Brien, a Multimedia Specialist. With audiences in Graz, Austria; Sydney, Australia; Sheffield, England; La Plata, Argentina; and Boston, MA, USA, GAPS was quite a successful event.

So why a flyingless conference? Well, Professor Wilde explains this event as a hopeful one in the times of climate change. He continues that communities of universities must be leaders, yet contribute to climate change in traveling to conferences to share research and knowledge. This conference aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a lifestyle change in the academic world. He believes that while some may claim these changes are impossible or will hinder economic activity, “thoughtful people will innovate new ways of living prosperously that have less impact on the environment.”

Part of the solution can come through the many ways we can find fulfillment with minimal impact on the environment. Professor Wilde encourages his audience to think of the list of things that bring joy and happiness without being resource intensive. The professor points to music, mental health, and well-being, a direct link to the topic of the conference that before may have seemed out of place. The professor makes it clear the connection the environment has to so many other fields of studies and aspects of life.

He reminds everyone involved and participating in GAPS, “here today, you are part of something important.”

View the GAPS here: