CFP: Climate Justice, Indigenous Peoples, and Collective Action
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE)
University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
May 28-June 1, 2013
 

Panel co-chairs:

Kyle Powys Whyte, Michigan State University
Janet Fiskio, Oberlin College
In collaboration with the International Association of Environmental Philosophy (IAEP)
 

Theme:

Recent activism and scholarship for climate justice has identified the potential of collective action for raising awareness of and constructing responses to what Rob Nixon terms the “slow violence” of climate change. Direct action and civil disobedience are ongoing within recent movements such as anti-fracking and Tar Sands; alternative forms of climate governance are emerging through Indigenous transnational organizations, treaty authorities, and conferences, among other examples. These strategies for collective action create spaces to critique current structures and to envision alternative futures. Indigenous communities, like Tribes and First Nations, have enduring histories of resistance and adaptation in the face of radical destabilization of social, political, and environmental conditions.  We invite proposals that examine anticolonial politics, alliances, and networks for climate justice and in particular papers that articulate the contribution of indigenous thinkers and communities to the theory and practice of environmental justice.  Papers can focus on any form of cultural production; we are especially interested in papers that cross the boundaries of environmental humanities disciplines, including literature/cultural studies, philosophy, and aesthetics.
 

Potential topics include, in relation to climate change:

• Contemporary imperialism
• Climate diaspora, internal displacement
• Indigenous sovereignty/self-determination
• Indigenous cultural survival
• Indigenous scientific knowledge and epistemologies
• Coalitions between indigenous communities and organizations such as Occupy, Tar Sands, 350.org
• Energy production (oil, tar sands, uranium)
• Regionally focused papers, such as PNW coastal nations, the Gulf coast, and the transnational North
• Indigenous cultural productions (literature, film, performance, new media)
• Indigenous philosophies and ethics
• Local and transnational movements for indigenous rights
• Media representations and indigeneity in the national imagination
• The limits of nationalism
• The atmospheric and global commons
• Geoengineering and indigenous peoples
• Indigenous peoples and UNFCCC and policies like REDD++

Proposal:

Please send a 1-page proposal (max. 500 words) in Word format to Kyle Powys Whyte (kwhyte@msu.edu) and Janet Fiskio (jfiskio@oberlin.edu) by November 7, 2012.

For more information, visit the conference website at http://asle.ku.edu