Call for Submissions for Themed Sessions

Session 1: “From the Global to the Grassroots: Fostering Transnational and Intersectoral Exchange in Participatory Practices and Methodologies”

Session 2: “Mentoring for Social Inclusion in Turbulent Times. Political Entanglements, Critical Consciousness and Dynamics of Inequality in Programs”

Session 3: “Decade of Decision: Confronting the Global Climate and Corona Crises with Systemic Alternatives”

Session 4: “Developing Feminist Leadership and Research on Movements and Indigenous Communities in the Global South”

Session 5: “The Rise of Race-Religion-Ethnic Discrimination in the Current Development of Capitalism”

Session 6: “The Global Political Economy of Covid-19 Pandemic: The Impact on and Responses from Civil Society and International Community”

Session 7: “Revolutionizing Belonging: Transnational Perspectives on the Reconstruction of Health and Wellbeing in the Context of Undocumented Migration”

Session 8: “Engaging Global South Knowledge Creation and Practices as Forms of Resistance”

Session 9: “Single Parents and Resistance in the Global North and South”

Session 10: “From Everyday Struggles to Global Change: Possibilities and Hurdles for Transnational Social Movement Unionism”

Session 11: “The Black Lives Matter Movement and Resounding Calls for Social Justice in an Interconnected World“

Schedule for Contributors and Special Organizers

• Abstracts are due by Sunday, March 20, 8pm Eastern Time (US East coast). Note:  if you are submitting a proposal to more than one session, please let both session organizers know, and also indicate your top choice.
• Session organizers and point persons will review the proposals between March 21 and April 2.
• Responses will be given by Sunday, April 3. Shortly thereafter, the overall conference program and schedule for the real-time panel discussions will be published online.
• Videos of your contribution will be due by Friday, April 22.
• Videos should be accessible from Sunday, May 1. Thereafter, the online Q&A starts.
• The virtual real-time panel discussions will take part between May 18-21, according to the time zone that works best for the session participants.

Conference Model

This conference will largely occur online. It mainly follows the “nearly carbon neutral conference” model that has been successfully elaborated and practiced by Environmental and Climate Justice Studies Hub of the University of California as Santa Barbara, our co-host.

• During the conference, which will take place over three weeks, starting on May 1, 2022, the contributions will be available for viewing on the conference website.
• Q&A will also take place online during this period, as participants and registered attendees will be able to pose questions to speakers via online comments and speakers will be able to reply in the same way.
• In addition, virtual real-time panel discussions with the contributors will take between May 18 and 21, 2022. The recordings of these discussions will be available on the conference website shortly after they take place.

The individual contributions, the Q&A sessions and the panel-discussions will remain up on the website as a permanent archive of the event.

This approach will not replicate the face-to-face interaction of conventional conference presentations, Q&A and panel talks. Yet, we hope that it will nonetheless promote lively discussion, as well as help build a community of activists, practitioners, students, professionals, members of civil society, governmental entities and non-profit organizations alike, with intersecting interests. With our chosen conference model and mission, we hope to contribute to a decolonizing of science and academia, and a networking between actors from different sectors sharing a similar interest.

There are a number of advantages to this approach:

• Individuals who would not otherwise be able to become involved in the conference (owing to distance or financial limitations, for example) will be able to fully take part.
• Participation in the conference is independent of one’s location in a particular time zone.
• Presenters, discussants, and session chairs help create freely accessible material that can be used thereafter for multiple purposes of training, teaching and learning, independent of time and place.

There will be no registration fee for the conference. Although this online conference will have its own carbon footprint, as data centers and web activity also require energy, we expect that it will only be a small fraction of that of a conventional conference, likely just 1-3%.For details on how to coordinate online events of this sort, see the White Paper / Practical Guide, provided by Ken Hiltner from UCSB.