Sustainability Week, which this year marks its tenth anniversary, will be celebrated with an open programme in the garden throughout the day. Both Iury Salustiano Trojaborg and Juan Samper are PhD candidates at Agenda 2030 Graduate School and their joint contribution is grounded in a broad understanding of sustainable development, in which environmental issues are closely intertwined with social, historical, and existential perspectives.
Emotions as part of knowledge
A central theme of the event is the role of emotions in sustainability research and in academia more broadly. Iury Salustiano Trojaborg, a PhD candidate at the Malmö Theatre Academy, highlights the importance of not excluding emotions from the creation of knowledge.
‘Emotions are avoided, or even forbidden, to a large extent within academia, and that is precisely why I value including them in my research. All people are guided by emotions, so why would I exclude them from my research?’ says Iury Salustiano Trojaborg.
In ‘Sustainability at a Crossroads’, artistic performance is combined with a lecture element in a format that seeks to go beyond the transmission of information. The ambition is to create conditions for reflection and emotional engagement – allowing the audience to feel with the questions being raised, rather than only understanding them intellectually. The event will also feature a capoeira performance by Ana Paz and Nicholas Torretta from the Capoeira Angola community in Malmö.
Social and colonial perspectives on sustainability
For Iury Salustiano Trojaborg, sustainability is not limited to environmental and climate issues, but also encompasses questions of history, power and social justice. Her research explores, among other things, the relationship between sustainability and colonialism – perspectives that are also central to ‘Sustainability at a Crossroads’.
‘As a member of the Agenda 2030 Graduate School at Lund University, and with the welcome news that Lund University now ranks first in the global sustainability ranking, I felt a strong need to take part in Sustainability Week before completing my PhD studies,’ she says.
Together with Juan Samper (LUCSUS), Iury Salustiano Trojaborg has developed an artistic performance and lecture combined, entitled ‘Sustainability at a Crossroads’. Her performance is inspired by tributes and offering rituals to deities representing different elements of nature in Afro‑Brazilian creation narratives. The audience is invited to engage emotionally with the issues being addressed.
‘When we talk about sustainability, environmental issues are often the first to be addressed. But there is so much more to it than that. I come from a colonised country, and the effects of colonialism can still be felt today,’ she says.
Listening as a way of approaching sustainability
In her artistic practice, Iury Salustiano Trojaborg repeatedly returns to the idea of listening – to oneself, to others and to nature – as a fundamental approach to sustainability.
‘We live in a world where we talk far too much and listen far too little. When I create my artwork, I therefore try to become silent and listen: to myself, to my ancestors, to other beings, to nature.’
For her, this is not only an artistic method, but also a way of fostering empathy and respect in encounters with other experiences and perspectives.
‘This is what I wish for all of us: that we try to step outside ourselves and develop empathy and respect for minorities, for all those who are different from ourselves.’
‘Sustainability at a Crossroads’ takes place on 18 April in the Lund Botanical Garden, as part of the closing day of Sustainability Week. The day also marks the tenth anniversary of Sustainability Week, celebrated with an open programme in the garden, including activities for both children and adults.
Read more: Artistic performance and lecture: Sustainability at a Crossroads | Agenda 2030 Graduate School
Please note that parts of this text, including quoted material, were previously published by Filippa Jonsson in her article about the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts’ programme during Sustainability Week (in Swedish):
Hållbarhet som går att känna - konstnärliga perspektiv under Hållbarhetsveckan i Lund - konstnarliga.lu.se
Sustainability Week
The event is part of Sustainability Week 2026, which runs between 13-18 April. Sustainability Week is an annual event in Lund organised as a joint venture by Lund University and Lund municipality. The week serves as a platform for bringing together ideas, raising public awareness and for inspiring sustainable change.
See the full programme at the Sustainability Week webpage | hallbarhetsveckan.event.lu.se
