Dear colleagues, In case you missed our earlier announcement, Paul Wapner, Sikina Jinnah, and I are now accepting applications for a workshop that will be held Tuesday March 15, 2011, one day prior to next year’s International Studies Association (ISA) annual conference, in Montreal.
We hope that you will consider joining us. If you're interested, please note that applications are due by this coming Friday, October 22. The workshop is titled, “Global Environmental Politics on a New Earth: Deepening Community and Research for the Environmental Studies Section.” It will bring together 60 members of the Environmental Studies Section of the ISA for a day of discussions and fellowship. This email has some further general information about the workshop, along with instructions about how to submit an application. Introduction Over the past two decades or so, the ISA’s Environmental Studies Section (ESS) has helped build a tradition of scholarship focused on global environmental politics. Over this same period of time, the very ground on which it and everything else rests has shifted. Today, humanity governs the planet, though often in ways that are accidental or ill considered. With close to 7 billion people, of whom many are plugged into globalized technologies, patterns of consumption, and systems of world-spanning commerce and interaction, humanity is pressing the ecological foundations of the planet like never before. Our species’ collective impact has created what author Bill McKibben calls a new “eaarth”—one in which the human signature is everywhere and in desperate need of humane and insightful guidance. As researchers and teachers of international studies, how are we to make sense of this new earth? How are we to act as responsible and privileged citizens, and what are the most meaningful forms of research and teaching that need to take place? Please join the ESS for a day-long workshop to wrestle together with these questions. As scholars of global environmental affairs, ESS members have a responsibility to generate and disseminate clear understanding of the stakes, the state of knowledge, and the questions that are as yet unanswered and even unasked about the planet’s new socio-ecological condition and fate. The workshop will provide a forum for ESS members to learn from each other about living on a new earth, and to consider how best to respond through scholarship and action. Logistics The format for the workshop is derived from a similar event that was organized for the 2002 ISA annual meeting in New Orleans. The workshop will be participatory and experiential, with the aim of fostering collective reflection, interchange, and a sense of community, as well as to help chart the way for a new generation of global environmental politics scholarship. The day will be organized around small-group sessions, with each session devoted to one of eight major themes. In the morning, participants will consider the ecological and political conditions that define the new earth; the afternoon will focus on responses. All sessions will be held at one of the ISA conference hotels. Information about the program and about each of the sessions is available here: http://tiny.cc/mc7wmt02uh Applying for the Workshop A short application form is attached to this message. To apply for the workshop, please return the form, along with a short (ideally 1-page) CV that gives a clear sense of your work, to: [email protected]. We need all applications, please, by Friday October 15. We apologize for the short timeframe. However, we recognize that people will want to lock in their travel and hotel arrangements for the ISA conference as soon as possible. To allow for this, a firm response will be sent back to all who apply by Friday October 22. We apologize, too, that we will not be able to accommodate everyone who is interested in participating. When Paul Wapner and I (Simon Nicholson) last ran a workshop of this nature, in New Orleans back in 2002, the 60-person cap meant that we had room for most of the section’s members. Times have changed. The section is now a good deal larger, in keeping with the fact that environmental challenges are becoming ever more pressing. Please note, too, that we have been asked by the ISA to put together a list of participants that takes proper account of the section’s geographic and other diversities. Given all of these factors, please forgive us if we are unable to find space for you this time around. Workshop only open to members of the ISA Please note that this workshop will only be open to members of the International Studies Association. If you are not a member and would like to join, please see http://www.isanet.org/joinisa/ Also, we have been asked by ISA headquarters to let you know that participation in this workshop does NOT allow, of itself, participation in the rest of the ISA annual conference. To register for the conference, please visit http://www.isanet.org/montreal2011/ Please contact Simon Nicholson with any questions: [email protected] Kindest regards, Simon Nicholson, Paul Wapner, and Sikina Jinnah Simon Nicholson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor School of International Service American University 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington DC 20016 Phone: +1-202-885-1614 E-mail: [email protected] www.american.edu/sis/faculty/snichols.cfm
Participant Application.doc
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