Are The Boys OK? Growing Up White, Rural and Male in a Changing World
January 15, 2026 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Young white men in rural areas are coming of age at the intersection of three major forces: a rapidly warming planet and changing social, economic and political landscapes that unsettle traditional models of masculinity. Join us for a lively conversation with three experts as they draw from ongoing comparative social science and artistic research projects to explore why some men feel alienated from climate action and social justice movements, and disenfranchised in rural economies.
A conversation with: Joseph Henderson, Educational Anthropologist; Shawndel N. Fraser, Environmental Psychologist; and Adam Dewbury, Economic Anthropologist
Dr. Joseph A. Henderson is a Lecturer at the University of Vermont and formerly served as an Associate Professor of Social Sciences at Paul Smith’s College. An anthropologist of environmental and science education, his research explores how sociocultural, political, and geographic factors influence climate change education. He completed a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester, focusing on science learning, sustainability education, and educational policy, and conducted post-doctoral work at the University of Delaware in climate change education. Dr. Henderson’s current research investigates how educational systems around the world implement climate change programs. He is the co-editor of Teaching Climate Change in the United States, a collection celebrating diverse climate change education programs, and is the co-editor of the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies. He is also appointed member of the National Academies of Sciences consensus study panel on Education for Thriving in a Changing Climate and is actively advising the New York State Department of Education as it implements new climate change education policy. A former earth science teacher and environmental educator, he is also an elected member of the Saranac Lake Central School District’s Board of Education and serves on the board of John Brown Lives!, a freedom education and human rights organization in the Adirondacks. He lives in Saranac Lake, New York with his wife Tracey and their two children.
Shawndel N. Fraser is an Environmental Psychologist and Interdisciplinary Artist exploring how bodies and environments mutually shape one another—emotionally, historically, and socially. She uses qualitative research, embodied methods, and community-based art to investigate how repair becomes possible when inherited memory is witnessed with curiosity and reverence, creating space for liberation from patriarchal and racialized constraints.
Her current project, Hands That Nurture, collaborates with rural white tradesmen through sculptural hand-casting and storytelling. Fraser approaches the work as an act of abolitionist witnessing, revealing both the wounds of masculine suppression and the possibility of devotion and mutual care across difference.
She co-led the inaugural Nine Conversations on Equity and Justice at John Brown Farm and served as Program Coordinator for John Brown Lives! on the Beacon of Hope monument project honoring Harriet Tubman, where she delivered the keynote address at the unveiling.
Fraser was a 2024–2025 Artist in Residence with Craigardan and John Brown Lives!, a Paden Retreat fellow, and an ongoing ceramics resident at The Station in Onchiota.
She lives and works between the Adirondacks and New York City.