Reimagining our Worlds from Below:

Panel Sessions

Scholars, organizers, policy analysts and activists from all over the globe have submitted presentations about important social issues facing our world. Each panel is available now for you to view the presentations and join in the online discussion. Where indicated, you can also join the Live Virtual Discussions, schedule May 18-21, 2022.

Click on the title to jump to the panel. For abstracts and bios, either click the presenters name to jump to their entry or see the complete list.

Panel 1: “Global Political Economy of Covid 19 Pandemic: The Impact On and Responses From Civil Society and International Community”
Presenters: Osaki Bilaye-Benibo, Suresh N. Neupane, Jane Da Costa, and Sanjay Tewari
Organizer: Ligaya Lindio McGovern and Alan Spector
Live Session: May 18, 12-1:30p UTC

Panel 2: “Engaging Global South Knowledge Creation and Practices as a Forms of Resistance”
Presenters: Jennifer Friedman, Laurel Graham, Wendy Marilú Sánchez Casanova, and Joel Federman
Organizers: Henry Parada and Kevin Cruz
Live Session: May 18, 2-3:30p UTC

Panel 3: “Developing Feminist Leadership and Research on Movements and Indigenous Communities in the Global South”
Presenters: Heeya Datta, Vijaya Tamla Rai, and Ligaya Lindio McGovern
Organizers: Ligaya Lindio McGovern and Morena Tartari
Live Session: May 19, 1-2:30p UTC

Panel 4: “The Rise of Race-Religion-Ethnic Discrimination in the Current Development of Capitalism”
Presenters: Gay Young, Doran Eldar, Aize Akhabau, and Fernando Augustin Renteria
Organizer: Alan Spector
Live Session: May 19, 3-4:30p UTC

Panel 5: “From the Global to the Grassroots: Fostering Transnational and Intersectoral Exchange in Participatory Practices and Methodologies”
Presenters: Corey Dolgon, Antonio Alejo, Camila Macedo Ponte, Patrícia Ferreira de Souza Lima, Elisa Privitera, Noa Cykman, and Tony Barbero
Organizer: Corey Dolgon and Eberhard Raithelhuber
Live Session: May 19, 5-6:30p UTC

Panel 6: “Single Parents in the Global North and South”
Presenters: Farzaneh Ejazi, Shuvasree Bhaduri, Jagriti Gangopadhyay, Simone Casey, Dries Van Gasse, Nina Van Eekert, and Erin Gaede
Organizer: Morena Tartari
Live Session: May 20, 8-9:30a UTC

Panel 7: “From Everyday Struggles to Global Change: Possibilities and Hurdles for Transnational Social Movement Unionism”
Presenters: Hendrick Simon, Cyntia Machado, Mara Lira, and Dithhi Bhattacharya
Organizers: Tatiana López Ayala, Janina Hirth, and Michael Fütterer
Live Session: May 20, 12-1:30p UTC

Panel 8: “Mentoring for Social Inclusion in Turbulent Times. Political Entanglements, Critical Consciousness and Dynamics of Inequality in Programs”
Presenters: Eberhard Raithelhuber, Òscar Prieto Flores, Danielle Lavin-Loucks, Yu-Te Huang, Leo Zephyrus Chow, Chi-Chung Lau, Jacob Avery, Fiona Soler, and Anuradha Kumar
Organizers: Òscar Prieto Flores and Eberhard Raithelhuber
Live Session: May 21, 1-2:30p UTC

Panel 9: “Single Parents: Challenges and Resistance”
Presenters: Eliane Eggler, Rashmee Karnad-Jani, and Mengxing Ma
Organizer: Morena Tartari
Live Session: May 21, 3-4:30p UTC

Panel 10: “The Decade of Decision: Confronting the Global Climate and Corona Crises with Systemic Alternatives”
Presenters: Guy McPherson, Shrishtee Bajpai
Organizers: John Foran and Morena Tartari
No live session.

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.