My Graduation Speech

I gave this speech a year ago at my graduation ceremony from my master's in Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy in Vienna, Austria. I'm publishing it here now because the words of this speech made a difference for me when I was deciding whether or not to move back to the US this summer. In the weight of everything that's happened since, I think it might be nice to share it with you all.

Dear graduates, professors, university officials, parents, siblings, partners, and friends.

Thank you all for taking the time today to be here with each of us graduates. Today marks a momentous day for us. A day of celebration and acknowledgment. A day of jubilation, and of transition, as we turn our eyes from the past three years laboring away at this master's program to our futures, blazing out ahead of us.

And let us acknowledge just how momentous it really is. We have overcome great trials and tribulations in order to get here, battling pandemic shutdowns, second and third (and fourth?) languages, financial difficulties, administrative difficulties, health and mental health challenges, relationship changes and losses, the full excitement and confusion of our 20s (and 30s), new jobs, new countries, new lives, and more amidst the usual intellectual struggle and growth of a master's degree.

Very little of this was possible on our own. Or, let me put it this way– we spent our first semester grappling with the philosophy of science, including ontologies - the study of what exists. Standing up here, today, 3 years after beginning this program, I can tell you what I know to exist. Love. Community. Connection. We are - each of us, in our essence - made up of those who love us, and our successes are a reflection of the financial and emotional support of our partners, families, friends, and communities, both near and far. We couldn't have done this degree without you all, gathered here today, so thank you.

And what a journey it was. Starting during the closing tendrils of COVID, we endured a shutdown as we tried to figure out what the hell nature was, before turning our attention towards platform economies, macroeconomic supercycles, care extractivism, (re)productivity, the manufacturing of consent, and more. And that's not even touching on our thesis topics, which we sequestered ourselves away with for what felt like decades but, I am told, was actually only six months to a year.

To engage with such complicated ideas at such a high level, to touch disciplines ranging from economics to ecology to sociology to law and more. This program has been a great privilege.

It is not a privilege open to all, however, despite Austria's relative generosity in providing free university education to EU students. I thank our program administrators for all their hard work for us. This program would not exist without everything that they (and our professors) do for us. We are so lucky to be the recipients of the vaunted title of SEEP Masters graduates. I also call upon them and the rest of the WU to continue to lower the barriers to opportunity for students from marginalized backgrounds, including supporting working-class students and returning learners who have to work while studying, non-European students, students of color, and disabled students. The utopian future we want to build will only be built with the bricks of a torn-down Fortress Europe, and, the higher the ivory tower, the harder it is to understand the ground.

But there were plenty of threads of levity in the weave of these last few years. Forming tight-knit, perhaps lifelong friendships; opportunities to relax and play; community both within and outside this program; and the joys of learning and growing. We had musical bonfires by the Donau in the middle of January. We gave back to the community through Service Learning, working with migrants, city trees, and even gamers. We went on two course retreats. We explored Vienna, learned who we were and were not, and took so many night trains that I'm sure ÖBB and Interrail employees know us on a first-name basis.

We broke new intellectual ground with our theses, those highly refined and highly tedious things to write. From degrowth to participatory democracy experiments to mobile elderly care to tax policy discourse to offshore oil field investments to debt-for-climate swaps to citizen climate assemblies to post-Fordist subjectivities to convivial technology to degrowth again, we explored it all. And I would be lying if I told you I understood all of what I just said, so give it up for my fellow graduates and their hard work.

We did it, y'all. I hope today and this weekend everyone is able to sit back, relax, and gaze upon their master's degree with pride and contentment, knowing they earned that thing, every centimeter of that simple certificate. They earned their recognition at conferences, their awards, and their job offers. To my fellow graduates, I want to take a moment to offer a warm and hearty, congratulations.

I also want to take this time to issue a call to action.

We graduate into a world that is not safe for us and our future children. Fascism is on the rise, with far-right governments winning national or regional elections in the United States, where I'm from, Austria, Italy, Germany, and the EU as a whole. Russia is breathing down Europe's neck, and the slaughter of Palestinians continues unabated. Meanwhile, Mt. Fuji is having its first snowless November in 130 years. Climate models- Sorry. Today is a happy day. You get my point.

Or rather, my point is this - a call to action.

Let me be clear - our theoretical foundation in this program, as strong as it is, will be meaningless if it is not applied to the real world. We did not suffer and thrive through the last few years just to sequester ourselves away further in ivory towers (or ivory spaceships, in the case of the WU main library), producing arcane, futile papers that serve as nothing but kindling for the fires of fascism and climate change.

We did this degree to make a difference, and to be quite frank, the world needs us (just like it needs each of you in the audience too.)

The world needs our clarity of thought and ethics. It needs our love and dedication and hard work. It needs our rest and play and laughter.

It needs us to not let fears of imperfection or judgment blunt our activism.

It needs us not to sink into a sludge of moral superiority that disconnects us from the rest of the world and blunts our impact.

It needs us not to give up in despair, embracing climate nihilism or pretty lives in the Zone of Interest.

It needs us to stand up and be counted among the living. It needs us to embrace the world with a fierce love. It needs us to fight.

It needs us to take these 3 years of theory and learning and to test them rigorously in the years to come, in practice, in activist academia, and hopefully, in governance. The world is too dear, and there is too much to do, for any other course of action.

The future is up for grabs. So let's celebrate and rest this weekend with our loved ones. Savor this moment and all it signifies. Then come Monday, let's take our master's degrees and get to work. Congratulations again. Thank you.