Adrian Parr

Adrian Parr Zaretsky (born 1967) is an Australian-born philosopher and cultural critic.

She specializes in environmental philosophy and activism.

In addition, she published on the sustainability movement, climate change politics, activist culture, and creative practice.

Adrian Parr Zaretsky was born in Sydney Australia.

She completed her bachelor's degree with First Class Honors in Philosophy at Deakin University in 1998, followed by a Master's in Philosophy in 2000.

She began her PhD studies under the direction of the feminist philosopher Claire Colebrook.

According to an article in the News Record, "LTAB was originally founded in Chicago in 2001 through nonprofit Young Chicago Authors as a festival for young spoken word artists of diverse cultural backgrounds to gather and engage in performances of their poetry."

She has been interviewed on national public radio and television for her work directing the Louder Than A Bomb Cincy program.

Her PhD dissertation "Creative Production: From Da Vinci to Deleuze" was revised and published by Edwin Mellen Press in 2003.

Between 2003 and 2006 she was a professor of cultural criticism at Savannah College of Art and Design.

Whilst in Savannah, Parr co-founded (with Avantika Bawa and Celina Jeffery) Drain: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture.

In 2006 she moved to the University of Cincinnati.

She was a tenured Full Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the School of Architecture and the Interior Design at the University of Cincinnati.

In 2011 she was awarded the Rieveschl Award for Scholarly and Creative Work.

This distinguished award recognizes a University of Cincinnati faculty for professional achievement in creative and scholarly work.

In 2013, she was appointed Director of The Charles Phelps Taft Research Center and Chair of Taft Faculty.

She has been appointed as the UNESCO water chair since 2013.

In November 2013, Adrian Parr Zaretsky and Michael Zaretsky co-directed the Future Cities; Livable Futures symposium, a public event that provided a platform for attendees to share and discuss the future of urban life.

Future Cities; Livable Futures featured an interdisciplinary panel of speakers focused on topics such as sustainable urban development, increasing population, inadequate infrastructure, poor social services, escalating health problems, and challenges posed by climate change.

Both her and Zaretsky were interviewed on public radio about sustainable urban development and their notion of livable cities.

She was interviewed by public radio for her views on environmental racism.

Then again on CBS where she described Hurricane Harvey as more of a man-made disaster than a natural disaster.

In 2014 she founded Louder Than A Bomb Cincy.

She worked with local organizations, University of Cincinnati affiliations, spoken-word poets, and Cincinnati public school district teachers to bring what is the largest youth poetry slam in the nation, to Cincinnati.

Her interviews have included 2016 interview with NPR, a 2015 interview with WVXU Chanel 5, and an earlier 2015 NPR interview with Bill Reinhardt.

In addition to community outreach, Adrian Parr Zaretsky has spoken on and been interviewed for her views on climate change, environmental degradation, and sustainable development.

In her capacity as a UNESCO water chair, she is a strong advocate for water justice.

In a NPR interview for World Water Day she speaks of the ongoing struggle for clean, accessible, and affordable water the world over.

Again on public radio she speaks of the connection between environmental racism and the struggles of Native American communities to survive the rising seas and the contamination of their water supplies.

Later, in a television interview with the Newsmakers, she describes Hurricane Harvey as more of a man-made than a natural disaster.

In an interview for The New York Times with journalist Natasha Lennard, Adrian Parr Zaretsky discusses how environmental damage and climate change are not only forms violence but a crime against humanity.

In his op-ed in The New York Times Brad Evans, the founder/director of the Histories of Violence Project expanded upon Parr's framework of climate violence explaining that environmental degradation is a crime against humanity.

Evans writes, she "also posed the question of what a crime against humanity actually means in such a context. It turns out, there are many ways in which damage to the environment rises to that level. This type of violence presents profound existential questions about what it means to be human and the ontological crimes (i.e., a crime against the human as such) some of us wage against ourselves."

In 2016, she produced, wrote, and narrated her first documentary, The Intimate Realities of Water.

Adrian Parr Zaretsky co-directed the film with Sean Hughes.

In addition, Sean Hughes was the editor and Jon Hughes, his father, was the director of photography.

When the documentary was released in 2016, it was screened at numerous independent film festivals in the United States where it went on to win 13 awards.

In July 2017, she was one of the founding signatories for the Geneva Actions on Human Water Security.

In March 2018, Adrian Parr Zaretsky was appointed Dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA) at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA).

In November 2020, Parr was named incoming Dean of the College of Design at the University of Oregon.