In challenging times, communities offer invaluable support. Samuel Filiaggi and Eva Pumo, graduate students in URI’s Department of Marine Affairs (MAF), have organized a speaker series designed to foster a community to help navigate the uncertainty that currently surrounds the field. Offering both in-person events and webinars, “The State of Marine Affairs” connects students, faculty, and alumni within the College of the Environment and Life Sciences and Graduate School of Oceanography.
“The purpose of this speaker series is to discuss changes within the marine affairs field, prepare ourselves as professionals, and build fellowship,” the invitation to a recent event stated. Filiaggi and Pumo currently serve as graduate student representatives for MAF. While not typically event planning positions, when the department started to feel the effects of a changing national environment, they realized that everyone was facing the same reality: uncertainty. “We felt like we had to meet the needs of the time,” Pumo says.
“This is bigger than who is in office,” Filiaggi adds. “There are huge changes coming to the way we do our work, and no matter what you believe or the policies you support, we all need to come to the table and help each other prepare for that.”
The first event in the series was an in-person roundtable discussion featuring URI faculty members. The second event, a webinar, featured Emily S. Patrolia MAMA ‘16, founder and CEO of ESP Advisors, a policy consulting firm helping ocean and coastal organizations navigate the federal government, educate decision makers, and influence U.S. policy. The next webinar will feature Basia Marcks ‘22, who earned her Ph.D. at URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography and is now a Senior Program Director at the Ocean Defense Initiative, a nonprofit coordinating federal policy engagement.
The response from students participating in the series has been overwhelmingly positive. “A fellow graduate student told me it felt like group therapy,” Pumo says. “It’s a reminder that we’re all this together.”
“You walk away feeling energized,” Filiaggi adds. “It’s important to feel a sense of solidarity, and everyone appreciates the practical tips. There’s a level of soul searching, too. We have to think about why we picked this career path, and why we were interested in this sector. By reexamining that, we realize there are more possibilities for where we can go with our degree than we had ever thought of before.”
Faculty, alumni, and professionals are equally enthusiastic. “The Marine Affairs Department’s mission is to train the next generation of scholars and practitioners who will provide leadership for the management of complex coastal and marine environments,” says MAF Chair, Austin Becker. “The graduate students of today are the positive change makers of tomorrow. The department is immensely proud of the leadership of Sam and Eva in creating this important forum for dialogue, encouragement, and mutual support.”
Based on the positive feedback, Filiaggi and Pumo hope the series will be continued beyond the semester. While the field is inherently responsive to current events, the design of the series establishes a productive forum for navigating them.
URI’s MAF department was the first program of its kind in the nation. Faculty have played a critical historical role in the development of coastal and ocean management programs in the U.S. and abroad, and the curriculum focuses on solutions for today’s global challenges including fisheries management, marine protected areas, ocean justice, coastal hazards, coastal and marine spatial planning, and climate change.
“Marine Affairs is a three dimensional look at how people interact with the marine environment,” Filiaggi says. “One dimension is the human side: the social aspect and the economy. One dimension is the environment: the science, fisheries, and natural elements. And the third dimension is law and policy, looking at how all those things come together. We have science and social understandings, but how do we synchronize it together to make effective policy and put science into action for the benefit of both people and the environment?”
If you are interested in attending the next event in “The State of Marine Affairs” series on April 25th at 2:00pm, please fill out this registration form to receive a Zoom link. More information on the webinar is here.
