Call for Proposals: Environmentalism in New Brunswick — Engaging Communities of Practice

Conference to be held Nov. 12-14, 2020 at St. Thomas University, Fredericton

In 2019, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) turned 50 years old. Its founding, along with Pollution Probe in Toronto and SPEC in Vancouver, signaled the beginning of the modern environmental movement in Canada and New Brunswick. CCNB’s 50th anniversary sparked a lively discussion about environmentalism and environmental politics in New Brunswick, from this beginning to its contemporary manifestations, and their future prospects.

This conference, organized by the Faculty Environmental Research Network (FERN) at St. Thomas University, is an outgrowth of that discussion. It is co-sponsored by Rural Action and Voices for the Environment (RAVEN), Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) and New Brunswick Environmental Network (NBEN).

Call for Proposals: Deadline March 22, 2020

Purpose:

  • To build and strengthen relationships among academic researchers, environmentalists, community activists and Indigenous communities.
  • To inform contemporary activism with historical environmental-political struggles.
  • To strengthen environmental scholarship, activism and public policy advocacy in New Brunswick

Participants:

We invite participation by scholars and researchers in the humanities, social and natural sciences, Indigenous leaders, knowledge keepers and land defenders, environmentalists, and community activists.

Possible Topics:

  • Politics of the environment in New Brunswick, past and present;
  • Activism against unsustainable development and environmental degradation in New Brunswick, past and present;
  • Discourses of environmental politics and activism in New Brunswick;
  • Models of researcher-indigenous-environmentalist communities of practice in policy development and advocacy;
  • Case studies of science-informed environmental policy development and advocacy;
  • Intersection of values, ethics and environmental action in New Brunswick;
  • The future we want: Shaping environmentalism going forward.

Expressions of interest:
We invite members of any of the above communities of practice to indicate their interest in contributing to one of the above topics. This could be as an individual paper, panel session, poster, roundtable, workshop, film screening, or artistic performance.

An expression of interest is a maximum of 250 words, and not necessarily a full abstract (although these are welcome). It can reflect a work in progress, or simply an idea that is under development. We will request concrete commitments and abstracts following an initial screening of proposals.

Please submit a brief biographical introduction or statement of relevant experience/knowledge along with your proposal.

Note: The conference format will be different from conventional academic conferences. Papers will be submitted and circulated ahead of time and will be discussed in workshop settings.

We will accept conference contributions in either in French or English and will be considered for post-conference publication in either conference proceedings, video or podcast formats, or a special edition of the Journal of New Brunswick Studies.

Please submit to: fern@stu.ca.

NOTE: Final conference arrangements depend on successful fundraising.

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