CFP: Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference

The University of Kentucky Political Ecology Working Group invites you to participate in the fourth annual

DIMENSIONS OF POLITICAL ECOLOGY:
CONFERENCE ON NATURE/SOCIETY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

February 27 – March 1, 2014
University of Kentucky | Lexington, Kentucky, USA

Friday 28th February Keynote Address: Dr. Laura Pulido (Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California)Saturday 1st March Keynote Address: Dr. Bruce Braun (Professor of Geography, University of Minnesota
This year, the UK Political Ecology Working Group invites YOU to organize sessions for the upcoming Dimensions of Political Ecology (DOPE) Conference!  We hope that having participants organize sessions will make the conference more reflective of the wide range of cutting edge research currently taking place in political ecology.
As a reminder, online registration will open October 1st and cost $20 for students and $40 for faculty (there is no fee for undergraduate participants). The registration deadline is December 2nd.
Please scroll down for more conference highlights and registration instructions, including how to submit a paper abstract that you would like the conference organizing committee to attempt to place in a suitable session if you are unable to find/organize an appropriate organized session.
Organizing your own session is encouraged and a great way to meet colleagues who share your interests and to develop fruitful collaborations. Best of all, we can help! It’s simple:
1.           Draft a Call for Papers (CFP). For guidance, reference the wide variety of CFPs currently circulating for the AAG or other disciplinary conferences and check out the program from last year’s DoPE Conference.
2.           Email your CFP to PEWG at ukpewg@gmail.com  We’ll help publicize your CFP on our newly redesigned website, on facebook and via our twitter feed, but you should also distribute it among your colleagues and to relevant listservs, perhaps including:

Cultural and Political Ecology
Crit-geog
eanth
envirosoc
h-environment
stsgrad

AAG speciality groups, such as:
culturalgeog
urbgeog

3.           Once responses to your CFP start rolling in, share your session participants and abstracts with us for inclusion in the conference program. Please also find someone to chair your session (i.e. keep time) and if possible, a discussant.4.           Sessions will need to be submitted to the DOPE organizing committee (via theukpewg@gmail.com email address) by December 2nd. Participants in your session will still need to register and pay the conference fee from October 1st.That’s it! PEWG will take care of the rest. There are no extra fees for organizing a session or reserving space.All session proposals we have received to date are listed on our website. If you are thinking of submitting a paper but don’t see a session it would fit into listed yet, please consider hosting your own session!

DOPE seeks to foster interdisciplinary discussions among a diverse group of scholars, and we welcome a wide variety of session topics. Possible topics might include rural social movements; urban food systems; complexity in ecological and social systems; decolonization, knowledge, and difference; neoliberal natures and climate justice; and feminist political ecologies. However, we encourage sessions with any topical, theoretical or methodological framework that brings together scholarship on the ecological dimensions of political, social, economic, or scientific research.

Also keep in mind that undergraduates are strongly encouraged to submit their papers to our annual Undergraduate Symposium. While students interested in participating in the Undergraduate Symposium will still need to register by the deadline, final papers will not be due until January (more details are forthcoming).

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about organization a session. We look forward to receiving your CFP!

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Conference Highlights and Instructions for Paper Abstracts:

This three-day conference provides an opportunity to critically examine perspectives on human-environment relationships in their varied manifestations and to foster discussions among a diverse group of scholars.  We encourage submissions from all individuals who are engaged in research on the ecological dimensions of political, economic, social, and scientific research regardless of their topical, theoretical, or methodological frameworks, including but not limited to:

Environmental justice
Cultural ecology
Ecological modernization
Environmental history
Environmental law
Restoration ecology
Political economy of nature
Genetic technology
Commons, enclosures, and land tenure
Environmental risk
Queer Ecology
Critical Race Theory
Eco-feminism
Resource management and conservation
Non-equilibrium ecology
Landscape studies
Infrastructure
Environmental discourse and policy
Feminist political ecology
Sustainability
Urban political ecology
Environmental sociology
Food security and sustainable agriculture
Knowledge production
Science and technology studies
Critical physical geography
Scholar/activist relationships

Conference Highlights:

Paper Sessions: These will include 3 or 4 presenters with a discussant or 5 presenters without a discussant (each presenter will generally have 15 to 20 minutes to present with time for discussion). We are especially interested in accepting organized sessions. Please contact us if you are interested in organizing a session (see below for details), but session organizers are also encouraged to circulate their own CFPs.

Panels on Scholar/Activist Collaboration: As part of an interest in developing stronger connections between scholars and activists, we will be sponsoring a series of panels dedicated to fostering collaborative research projects between researchers and activists.

Undergraduate Student Symposium and Paper Competition: This symposium provides undergraduate students with a forum to present their work, receive useful feedback, and connect with graduate students and faculty with similar research foci.

Field Trips: These trips will focus on contemporary issues related to political ecology in the greater bluegrass region and will provide opportunities to meet with local activists (as well as sample some of Kentucky’s most famous agricultural output: bourbon).

Graduate Student Paper Competition: Please look for additional information to be emailed and posted on our website in the coming weeks for application instructions for each competition.

Submission of Abstracts and Registration:

Abstracts or proposals should be 200 – 300 words in length and include three to five keywords. Participants should include name, affiliation, and email address (please specify if you do not want your email included in the program).

All presenters must register online for the conference and pay the fee of $20 for graduate students; $40 for faculty with no fee for undergraduate participants.

Please visit www.politicalecology.org to register from October 1st.

The deadline for abstract submissions is December 2nd 2013. 

Please send any questions to the DOPE organizing committee at the email address ukpewg@gmail.com.