There is a conference on the intersection of the philosophies of conservation science and environmental justice taking place at the University of Minnesota this spring (May 23, 2024–May 25, 2024). Karen Kovaka, Romy Opperman, and Andrea Sullivan-Clarke are confirmed speakers. I will place the call for abstracts below.
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Kyle Whyte’s “Against Crisis Epistemology” (2021) urges those concerned by climate change and for environmental justice away from a crisis epistemology and toward an epistemology of coordination. In contrast to a crisis epistemology— which is apt to intensify colonial oppression due to the assumption that present challenges are new, unprecedented, and urgent— epistemologies of coordination seek to address challenges by developing and renewing relations of kinship, expressed as moral bonds of mutual responsibility. Inspired by this recommendation toward coordination, this conference aims to promote dialogue among philosophers of environmental justice and of conservation science. We seek to discover what we can mutually cogenerate toward the common goals of stewardship and environmental justice. Central to the conference are the questions: What can philosophers of conservation science learn from those of environmental justice, and vice versa? What would coordination look like?
We aim for this conference to bring together philosophers working on environmental justice, climate change, conservation, and environmental science toward ends of coordination and collaboration and invite the submission of abstracts on these themes. Submissions needn’t cover all themes of the conference; we plan to have a robust group of participants that cover various areas and for the central morals to emerge collaboratively during our time together.
Abstracts ought to be roughly 250 words long and prepared for anonymous review. They may be submitted to Bennett McNulty (mcnu0074@umn.edu) by February 29th, 2024. We expect to review abstracts and notify submitters by mid-March.
Limited funding may be available to support graduate students, contingent faculty, and others without institutional funding. If you do not have institutional funding and would like to receive this funding, should it be available, please let us know in your abstract submission email.
Finally, for those that cannot attend in person, we will provide the option of virtual participation in the conference via Zoom.
Organisers:
Max Dresow (Macalester College)
Michael Bennett McNulty (University of Minnesota)
Ália Kel O’Loughlin (University of Minnesota)
Lauren Wilson (University of Minnesota)