Join us for the 8th Annual
EcoJustice and Activism Conference
Disrupting Empire: Education and Activism for a Decolonized World
March 28-30, 2019
Opening Keynotes: EMU Student Center Auditorium
Friday and Saturday: College of Education Porter Building
Eastern Michigan University
FREE and Open to the Public
EcoJustice and Activism Conference
Disrupting Empire: Education and Activism for a Decolonized World
March 28-30, 2019
Opening Keynotes: EMU Student Center Auditorium
Friday and Saturday: College of Education Porter Building
Eastern Michigan University
FREE and Open to the Public
Join us for the 8th Annual EcoJustice and Activism conference and workshops March 28-30, 2019 at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI. This conference was first organized to engage activists, community members, educators, students, and scholars in deep and meaningful discussions around what we can do together to address and organize actions aimed at eliminating current social and environmental injustices occurring in our local, national, and international communities.
EcoJustice Education is an approach that analyzes the deep cultural roots of intersecting social and ecological crises, focusing especially on the globalizing economic and political forces of Western consumer culture. EcoJustice scholars and educators also study, support, and teach about the ways that various cultures around the world actively resist these colonizing forces by protecting and revitalizing their commons—that is, the social practices and traditions, languages, and relationships with the land necessary to the healthy regeneration of their communities. By emphasizing the commons (and its enclosure or privatization), EcoJustice perspectives understand social justice to be inseparable from and even imbedded in questions regarding ecological well-being.
Central to EcoJustice theory and practice is what we call a “cultural ecological analysis” of the deeply ingrained assumptions, systems, practices and relations that rationalize violence to living communities, human and more than human. This year we focus our attention and discussions on the historically colonizing forces of global economic and cultural empires. Presentations might focus, for example, on questions related to historical processes of displacement and dispossession of Indigenous communities, critiques of settler colonialism, border disputes, immigration, the military industrial complex and the politics of migration for humans and the more than human world, the industrialization of agriculture and the related disruptions of communities, etc. We will be particularly interested in what education and activism can do to disrupt these processes. Other presentations that deal with our responsibilities in the face of intersecting social and ecological problems will also be considered.
We encourage a wide range of critical perspectives in related fields and from within artistic, scholarly, and activist traditions and projects. These could include traditional scholarly presentations, performances, workshops, or artistic exhibitions. See the guidelines for proposing on the next page.
EcoJustice Education is an approach that analyzes the deep cultural roots of intersecting social and ecological crises, focusing especially on the globalizing economic and political forces of Western consumer culture. EcoJustice scholars and educators also study, support, and teach about the ways that various cultures around the world actively resist these colonizing forces by protecting and revitalizing their commons—that is, the social practices and traditions, languages, and relationships with the land necessary to the healthy regeneration of their communities. By emphasizing the commons (and its enclosure or privatization), EcoJustice perspectives understand social justice to be inseparable from and even imbedded in questions regarding ecological well-being.
Central to EcoJustice theory and practice is what we call a “cultural ecological analysis” of the deeply ingrained assumptions, systems, practices and relations that rationalize violence to living communities, human and more than human. This year we focus our attention and discussions on the historically colonizing forces of global economic and cultural empires. Presentations might focus, for example, on questions related to historical processes of displacement and dispossession of Indigenous communities, critiques of settler colonialism, border disputes, immigration, the military industrial complex and the politics of migration for humans and the more than human world, the industrialization of agriculture and the related disruptions of communities, etc. We will be particularly interested in what education and activism can do to disrupt these processes. Other presentations that deal with our responsibilities in the face of intersecting social and ecological problems will also be considered.
We encourage a wide range of critical perspectives in related fields and from within artistic, scholarly, and activist traditions and projects. These could include traditional scholarly presentations, performances, workshops, or artistic exhibitions. See the guidelines for proposing on the next page.
Conference Hosted by:
EMU Social Foundations of Education Masters Program EcoJustice Concentration:
www.emich.edu/coe/sofd
EMU Social Foundations of Education Masters Program EcoJustice Concentration:
www.emich.edu/coe/sofd
