The third Annual Conference and Social Change Forum is taking place at Victoria University of Wellington from 1-3 September 2016.
Call for presentations
Existing structures of power, exploitation and inequality are not inevitable, and there are many existing alternative visions and emerging possibilities for organising life. Social Movements, Resistance and Social Change III seeks to support these alternatives and possibilities by questioning the apparent divide between the academy and activism, and seeking to move beyond it.
We intend to highlight the diverse and productive spaces where academia and activism intersect, exploring points of contestation and difference, and asking how we can cooperate better in future. By drawing together people from across the academic-activist spectrum, this conference will create a forum for presentations, workshops, performances, exhibitions and debate to explore change.
This conference explicitly seeks to advance social and environmental justice, economic democracy and mutual respect. In this spirit, we seek to realise two key aims:
- To strengthen existing ties within and between activism and academia, as well as developing new relationships.
- To work together toward the development of concrete programmes for social change.
Participation
We invite participation in a variety of forms, including (but not only): presentations, panel discussions, workshops, exhibitions and film screenings.
We invite registrations and presentation proposals (up to 500 words) by 27 May. Notification of acceptance will be made by 24 June. Proposals can be uploaded on the registration page or emailed as a document attachment to resistanceandsocialchange2016@gmail.com.
If your proposal is for a panel discussion or workshop, please include the details of how you would like to structure your session; e.g. 3 presenters followed by a debate. Please also include other relevant details, such as the names of those who will be involved, and the proposed title for your session.
Participation and attendance will be free, but those who are able to, and those with institutional support, are encouraged to donate up to $100 (or more), which will be used to assist with travel/accommodation costs for students and unwaged/low-waged people from outside the Wellington region.
Please email any queries to resistanceandsocialchange2016@gmail.com
Presentations are invited to address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Investigative journalism/citizen journalism
- Democratic/community media
- Activism and social media
- Surveillance/counter-surveillance
- Academic freedom
- TPPA
- Feminist activism
- Union activism
- Education struggles/activist pedagogy
- Activism and art
- Māori activism, tino rangatiratanga and the Te Tiriti o Waitangi
- Pasifika activism
- Ethnic minority voices
- Refugee narratives
- LBGTQI activism
- Climate change and environmental activism
- Food security
- Political organisation, parties and social change
- Protest mobilization/organization
- Poverty and inequality.
Registration will close on 15 July 2016, and stipend offers will be made soon after. Register online here.
Conference Partnerships
The conference is being run in conjunction with the public launch of Economic and Social Research Aotearoa, a left-wing think tank whose inception illustrates the fruitful exchange taking place between activists and academics today.
The journal Counterfutures: Left Thought and Practice Aotearoa will invite presenters to submit ‘activist interventions’, or scholarly articles (to be double-blind peer reviewed), toward a special issue to be published in 2017.
