Julian Portilla’s 2017/2018 Sabbatical in Mexico
Associate Professor Julian Portilla and his family are on sabbatical in Cholula, Puebla in Mexico. He’s learning about Mexican fisheries, renewable energy and Haitian land law. He’s coordinating a national scale collective impact process to align the various sectors involved in Mexican fisheries, trying to develop common objectives and measurements to ensure that Mexican fisheries stay healthy for generations to come.
Julian also mediates in Haiti between farmers displaced by an industrial plant built by the Haitian government and financed by the InterAmerican Development Bank. The IDB has a complaint mechanism for all its major infrastructure projects and it was triggered in this case by farmers claiming that they had lost their livelihoods because the compensation they received was flawed. This process involves a trip to Haiti just about every six weeks to meet with all the parties and try to develop agreements about what the future might look like.
Finally, back in Mexico, a massive energy reform effort is underway to achieve an national energy mix in which 30% comes from renewable energy by 2030. While in many ways this is a positive step toward mitigating Mexico’s significant carbon emissions, it has generated some situations in which energy companies have been involved in negotiating shady deals with corrupt community leaders that have led to a great deal of social conflict, violation of human rights and many lost opportunities to increase renewable power generation. Julian has just completed a stakeholder analysis of the situation that marks the beginning of a three year dialogue effort led by a trio of two NGOs and a university (Centro de Colaboración Cívica-CCC and the Iniciativa Climática de México-ICM and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales-FLACSO).
As for the relaxing part of sabbatical, Julian reports they have traveled to out of the way places in the infinite treasures of Mexico: whales, butterflies, mountains, rivers, deserts, ancient cities and cultures, TONS of amazing food, family and friends. His children are learning Spanish. Living at the foot of an active volcano has been interesting as the Popocatépetl shoots off fireworks regularly; it’s quite a view from their window. Tropical storms, earthquakes, a cold winter (for Mexico) and an election year have all added to the excitement. There is also lots of mountain biking to work off some off the tortas, tacos and tamales (known commonly in Mexico as vitamin T). Julian and family were also delighted to get a visit from Champlain’s very own Brian Murphy and Nadia Luchin and family!
When Julian returns from Sabbatical, he will teach courses in our new Conflict Resolution Minor. This new minor will be an excellent complement to many of Champlain College’s programs.
