Industrial toxic emissions on the South Baltimore Peninsula are among the highest in the nation. Because of the concentration of factories and other chemical industries in their neighborhoods, residents face elevated rates of lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses in addition to heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular disease, all of which can lead to premature death. Fighting to Breathe follows a dynamic and creative group of high school students who decided to fight back against the race- and class- based health disparities and inequality in their city. For more than a decade, student organizers stood up to unequal land use practices and the proposed construction of an incinerator and instead initiated new waste management strategies. In this talk, Baltimore resident and activist-scholar Nicole Fabricant describes how these young organizers came to envision, design, and create a more just and sustainable Baltimore.

Nicole Fabricant received a BA from Mount Holyoke College in 1999 in urban anthropology and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2009. Fabricant teaches at Towson University in Maryland. She is co-

executive editor of NACLA. Her book Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore was published in December 2022 by

University of California Press. 

Co sponsored by:  Dept of Anthropology, Center for Ethnic Studies Research, Center for Civil Rights + Racial Justice and Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation