"DEFENDING THE LAND" 2022 CONFERENCE
In the face of profound uncertainties as to the future of planet Earth, the present historical moment calls for revisiting the multi-layered relationships that are at the origin of socio-environmental conflicts on a local, national and global scale.
In response to some of the most pressing issues of our time, the Latin American Studies program and the Department of Spanish Language and Literatures at Villanova University presents, "Defending the Land: Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Americas" on April 22 - 23.
"Defending the Land: Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Americas"
April 22 - 23
The conference aims to examine from an interdisciplinary perspective how the transformation and degradation of the environment caused by the colonial enterprise that began in 1492 have shaped human ecologies across the Americas. To that end, the conference will open up a discussion of how colonialism, the commodification of nature, and economies of extraction and dispossession, frame discourses and practices immersed in the web of life.
The conference is planned to be an in-person event, however, if the evolution of the global health situation does not allow this face-to-face meeting, we will move to online or hybrid participation.
The Organizing Committee welcomes individual papers, panel proposals, artists’ projects, and community-based initiatives in English and Spanish that engage with questions such as:
- What do current and past social-environmental conflicts say about the future of ecology and the environment in the Americas?
- How can grassroots movements as well as cultural, educational, and socio-political initiatives generate possible alternative futures?
- What are the different social responses to environmental degradation?
The aim of this conference will thus be to reflect on and discuss the relationship between human ecology and planetary crisis. Possible topics of the conference include but are not limited to:
- Ecologies of Hope and/or Environmental Initiatives for Reparation
- Extraction and Dispossession in the Americas
- Climate and Ecological Disasters
- World-Ecology and Social Ecology: Dialogues
- Women and Labor in a Time of Ecological Crisis
- Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism
- Climate and Environmental Refugees
- Anthropocene/Capitalocene
- Native American Activism and Social Movements
Proposals should include a name (or names), a title, a short description of the proposed activity (200-250 words), and the institutional affiliation of the participants. The Organizing Committee strongly encourages submissions for panel proposals of three to four participants.
The deadline to submit proposals for individual presentations and panels is Jan. 31, 2022. Please send proposals to defendingtheland2022@gmail.com.
Keynote Speakers
Gabriela Valdivia is a Professor of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Assistant Dean in Honors Carolina. She is a feminist political ecologist examining the relationship between resources and socio-environmental inequities, with a focus on environmental injustices in Latin America. Gabriela is an author of the digital project Crude Entanglements, which explores the affective dimensions of oil production; a co-author of Oil, Revolution, and Indigenous Citizenship in Ecuadorian Amazonia; and a co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography.
Jaskiran Dhillon is an anti-colonial scholar and organizer who grew up on Treaty Six Cree Territory in Saskatchewan, Canada. Her work spans the fields of settler colonialism, anthropology of the state, environmental justice, anti-racist feminism, colonial violence, political ecology, and youth studies. Her writing has been published in The Guardian, The Nation, Cultural Anthropology, Feminist Formations, Environment and Society, Social Texts, and Decolonization among other venues. She is the author of Prairie Rising: Indigenous Youth, Decolonization, and the Politics of Intervention (2017) and co-editor of Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement (2019). Her new book, Notes on Becoming a Comrade: Solidarity, Relationality, and Future Making is forthcoming in 2022. Jaskiran is an associate professor of global studies and anthropology at The New School and served as the founding president of The New School's AAUP Chapter. She is also building a radical, community bookstore in West Philadelphia
Invited Artist
Ana Llácer is a Spanish/American journalist and independent documentary filmmaker particularly interested in stories with an environmental justice focus and rooted in the vindication of human rights. Her recent works include the short films NO FATE (2015) and ROYALTY (2020), and the documentary UMA: A WATER CRISIS IN BOLIVIA (2020), winner of the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Red Nation International Film Festival (2020) and the Best Indigenous Film Award at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (2020).