Join us in showcasing research and learnings with a community organizing focus!
The OPIRG Guelph’s Social and Environmental Justice Symposium is a convergence of academic and community research, activism, and art focused on social and environmental justice issues. We are aiming to make research more accessible to all and to foster deeper relationships and idea sharing between academics and community activism. Our goal is to support the development of research that is useful to community based campaigns and projects working for social change and fostering a space for this exchange to take place. We would like to encourage opportunities for students and community members energy and work to be useful as a valuable resource to improve community organizing. This symposium will highlight community – based social justice research by students and community groups.
This conference is for the campus AND the community. Whether you are a student, community member, organizer, mobilizer, or just curious of activism we encourage you to come out and participate! We are working to challenge the shift our understandings of the role of research and foster a space for academics and activists to collectively examine and engage with community issues through creative and alternative skill and idea sharing.
This is beyond your typical research conference. We are working to foster a space for research presentations, panels, roundtables, breakout groups, multimedia and art displays, interactive activities, zines and more. We welcome all presentation ideas focused on creating social and environmental change. OPIRG welcomes proposals on topics related to:
Prisoner abolition/ The Prison Industrial Complex
Police and State Violence
Racism/ Anti-Blackness/ Anti Muslim
Environmental sustainability/ Climate justice/ Environmental Racism
Reproductive Justice
Rape Culture
Food Security /Anti-Poverty Justice
Migrant Justice
Disability Justice/Accessibility
Alternative Economies/ Governance Models
Extractive industries (renewable and non-renewable)
Native sovereignty/Indigenous Solidarity
Strategies for Making Change/Exploring Social movements
If you are interested in having your work considered for this conference, please submit to symposium@opirgguelph.org- an abstract, including the format of presentation (max. 300 words), online presentation description (max. 70 words), and biography (max. 50 words). Submission Deadline – February 28th, 2016. The symposium will be held the weekend of March 19th and 20th .