CJUU co-hosts scholar-activist Dr Aaron Thierry at Trinity College Dublin, September 10th 2026
This coming Thursday 10th September, 13:00 - 14:00, the Climate Justice Universities Union and Trinity’s School of Psychology are delighted to host activist and researcher Dr Aaron Thierry (https://bsky.app/profile/thierryaaron.bsky.social).
Dr Thierry recently completed a PhD in Cardiff University's School of Social Sciences, having previously earned a doctorate in ecosystem ecology. His shift into social science followed from a growing interest in the institutional drivers of the climate crisis. His research examines how scientific knowledge is produced and acted upon under conditions of ecological emergency and asks what universities and researchers owe the public in a crisis. He also works to support engaged scholarship and academic activism. His voice was one of twenty featured in the recent book Scientists on Survival: Personal Stories of Climate Action.
Dr Thierry will deliver a talk on his doctoral research - The Cassandra Condition: Climate Scientists and the Weight of Knowing
Climate scientists hold consolidated knowledge of catastrophic risk while working within institutions that have repeatedly failed to generate a commensurate political response. What does it mean to live and work inside that contradiction, and what does it reveal about the role of scientific expertise in a declared emergency?
This talk presents findings from a reflexive thematic analysis of interviews with climate scientists across a spectrum of engagement with the climate emergency movement, exploring how they make sense of the crisis they study and how they navigate the gap between understanding and action. The research develops the concept of the Cassandra condition and asks uncomfortable questions about scientific neutrality and advocacy, questions that are personal as well as professional for Earth-system scientists working at the boundary between knowledge production and planetary crisis.
The work comes from science and technology studies, and the accounts speak to psychological research on moral injury, ecological grief, and the coping strategies of people who know more than they can act on. The talk opens a conversation about those connections, and about whether the inherited norms of the profession are adequate to the moment.
Dr Thierry's talk is in person only. You do not have to sign up for this talk - you can just come along. The talk will take place in lecture theatre LB11 which is located in the basement of the Lloyd Institute, which is near the former Science Gallery and the Pearse Street entrance to Trinity (location shown here: https://www.tcd.ie/Maps/map.php?b=249).
From 15:30-17:30, Dr Theirry will host an in-person interactive workshop on An Introduction to Campaign Strategy. Spaces in the workshop are limited - please contact clare.kelly@tcd.ie if you are interested in attending.