6th Annual Eco-ability Conference – Online

6th Annual Eco-ability Conference
July 11, 2020
10:00am to 2:00pm
(USA Eastern Time)
Free Online Conference
Via Zoom

__________________________________


Join Zoom Meeting
https://msu.zoom.us/j/6377670720
Password: ecoability

__________________________________

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is eco-ability-collective-1-772x1024.jpg

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

We are looking for papers and presentations concerning, but not limited to, the following topics:

We are looking for intersectional innovative liberatory theories between dis-ability studies, environmental ethics, critical animal studies, queer studies, critical race theory, transnational feminism, and other radical theories that promote activism.

Activist Stories of exclusion of people with dis-abilities in the animal advocacy movement – What are the problems within the animal advocacy/liberation movement that create tension with dis-abled advocates? How can these problems be resolved? What animal advocacy campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary and ableist to those with dis-abilities?

Activist Stories of exclusion of animal advocacy/liberation in the dis-abilities rights movement – How are animal advocates excluded from discussion within dis-ability rights movement? How can these exclusions be resolved? What effective routes of activism can we take to create more effective coalitions between these two struggles? What dis-ability rights campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, and practices are exclusionary and speciesist to those involved in the animal advocacy movement?

Critiques of Service Nonhuman Animals and Animal Testing/Vivisection – Vivisection and service nonhuman animals are often touted as the “cure” for people with dis-abilities. What does it mean to try to “cure” dis-ability? Is what science does, such as testing on nonhuman animals, while searching for “cures” worth the cost? What is our responsibility to nonhuman animals in relation to people with dis-ability and vice versa?
Activist stories of being included or excluded from the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements – What are the problems within the animal, dis-ability, and environmental movements that creates tension between the different movements and advocates? How can these problems be resolved? How are these problems being solved? What animal, Earth, and dis-ability campaigns, projects, events, protests, language, programs, organizations, theories, and practices are exclusionary?

Send the following via e-mail in a Word Doc. attachment to: Dr. Anthony J. Nocella II – nocellat@yahoo.com

Subject of E-mail – 6th Annual Eco-ability Conference Submission

1. Biography 80 to 100 words one paragraph third person

2. Abstract 200 to 250 words one paragraph third person

3. Title of presentation

Each presentation is 20 minutes long (powerpoints are allowed) with 10 minutes afterward of questions and comments. This conference is online so you will need internet and a computer

DEADLINE for submissions:June 10, 2020

SCHEDULE

__________________________________

Join Zoom Meeting
https://msu.zoom.us/j/6377670720
Password: ecoability


10:00AM – 2:00PM (USA Eastern Time)

10:00am
1. Getting to Solidarity: Toward An Interest-Based Conflict Resolution Approach To Resolving The Conflict between Eco-Ability Equity and Animal Equity”
Daniel Salomon


This paper will engage the various ability movements and animal liberation movements to rethink the relationship among abilities, animals and the animal liberation movements from the perspectives of social justice, social equity, the urban context, multiable identities and win-win interest-based conflict resolution. This paper will explore why making certain individuals into super crips, is both hurtful and harmful to the animal and abilities movements alike in an age of isolating like abilities, tokenism, urbanization, social asceticism, institutional animal cruelty, socio-planetary crisis and climate emergency. Getting beyond typical complaining approaches in the ability movements and rigid strategies in the animal liberation movements, this paper will explore the possibility of taking a social justice, social equity, urban contextualized, multiable identities, win-win interest-based conflict resolution approach to animal liberation. An approach based on integrating the full range of human abilities into the animal liberation movements and making movements, communities and lifestyles more inclusive, accessible, accommodating, individualized, culturally appropriate and mutualistic, empowering all human abilities to work towards animal liberation. As someone who is both neurodiverse and intrinsically committed to animal liberation, environmentalism and the socio-planetary struggle, I plan to advocate for the empowerment of peoples of all abilities to be able to engage animal issues and enact animal liberation.    

Daniel Salomon has an MA in Theological Research from Andover Newton Theological School with Graduate Certificate in Science and Religion from Boston Theological Institute, as well as a BS Cum Laude from Salisbury University (with concentrations in Biology, Environmental Studies and Conflict Analysis/Dispute Resolution) and a Naturalist Certificate from the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. Salomon is author of seven books on the environment and a contributor to the eco-ability field. Salomon’s latest book “God’s Kindness” was reviewed by Ed Langlois in the Catholic Sentinel of the Portland Oregon Archdioceses. Salomon lives in Portland Oregon and is a lifelong vegetarian.

10:30am
2. The Place for Secondary-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Eco-Ability
T.N. Rowan
Increasing recognition of burn out has led some scholars to claim many vegans will develop Secondary-Traumatic Stress Disorder (STSD) as a result of witnessing violence against nonhuman animals. STSD is significant because it both identifies and poses a problem: what nonhuman animals experience as part of their everyday lives is traumatic and that trauma reverberates outwards to those who witness it. STSD takes nonhuman animals seriously while also opening up questions about normalized or commonplace activist practices. Vegan activism and CAS literature are the source of countless texts that bring to the forefront violence against nonhuman animals. Being a scholar and/or activist requires engagement with these texts because there is arguably no way to escape them and remain in these communities. This presentation is guided by the questions: how can activists work with the seemingly incompatible interests of nonhuman animals exposed to violence and humans who cannot bear witness to this violence but still want to do activism and be a part of activist communities? Furthermore, how can an eco-ability framework include STSD without perpetuating ableism? Thus far trauma, STSD, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have received minimal attention in critical literature on disability. This presentation includes personal activist and scholarly experiences including questionable widespread practices and trauma-informed alternatives such as educating about trauma, using content warnings, and creating alternative spaces and content for accessibility.

T.N. Rowan is a PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. They are currently researching world building and its potential as an environmental ethics methodology and form of arts-based research. T.N. Rowan is proposing world building can facilitate intersectional activist communities and individuals in identifying and responding to issues that matter to them. They frame world building as an accessible and creative form of critical thinking. T.N. Rowan’s research interests also include naming, identity, violence, and trauma across a variety of boundaries including species, gender, and sexual orientation.

11:00am
3. ADHD, Neuroableism, and White Supremacy “For the Animals”
Julia Feliz


In their chapter, Julia Feliz will draw parallels between the tactics used in the Animal Rights movement in association with the centering of the mainstream white majority, which exclude neurodivergent communities “for the animals.” Exclusion, like most white centered and co-opted social justice movements, is a defining characteristic of the mainstream vegan/Animal Rights movement in which only those that perform according to the supremacist “norms” are allowed a platform within the hierarchy that places nonhuman “animals first” above all other marginalized people. Through their previous work, Julia has been able to trace the path of supremacy within the vegan and (nonhuman) Animal Rights movement as it relates to race and queerness. Similarly, in this chapter, they will attempt to establish a path as it relates to neurodivergence through answers the following: What does the vegan and (nonhuman) Animal Rights movement look like for an ardent neurodivergent Animal Rights activist committed to consistent anti-oppression and guided through an acute awareness of their ADHD? How do unchecked white supremacy and neuroableism work hand-in-hand to ensure that the most privileged humans remain centered above both nonhuman animals and neurodivergent humans? How can neurotypical vegans work to bridge gaps with neurodivergent communities to ensure that nonhumans do indeed come first in their own movement?

Julia Feliz is a resource activist, illustrator, and the author of works, including “Veganism in an Oppressive World (2017),” “Veganism of Color: Decentering Whiteness in Human and Nonhuman Liberation (2019),” and due in 2020, “Queer and Trans Voices: Achieving Liberation Through Consistent Anti-Oppression.” Julia is also the founder and lead content editor of Sanctuary Publishers. They are also the designer and creator of resources, such as NeuroAbleism.com, ConsistentAntiOppression.com,  VeganismOfColor.com, and NewPrideFlag.com. Julia holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in the biological sciences and most recently, was kicked out of Cornell University for their radical and open stance against racism, neuroableism, and nonbinarism in the field of science and beyond.
11:00am

11:30am
4. Fitness and Total Liberation
Anthony J. Nocella II


I co-founded a running club in 2019 to promote, health, physical fitness, friendships, and activism for animal liberation. What we have found is that this club has promoted an inclusive space for those with different abilities for all. This running club is also open to those that want to roll, walk, sit or lay-down, while others do other different activities. After the weekly run and random races such as trail races, Ragnar, and 5K fun runs, the club gathers at local vegan restaurants in Utah to eat together. For social movements to grow and be sustainable it is critical to build community and foster a holistic living – mind, body and spirit, for activism.

Anthony J. Nocella II, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology in the Institute of Public Safety at Salt Lake Community College. He is the editor of the Peace Studies Journal, Transformative Justice Journal, and co-editor of five book series including Critical Animal Studies and Theory with Lexington Books and Hip Hop Studies and Activism with Peter Lang Publishing. He is the National Director of Save the Kids and Executive Director of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies. He has published over fifty book chapters or articles and forty books. He has been interviewed by New York Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicles, Fresno Bee, Fox, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, and Los Angeles Times.

12:00pm
5.
12:30pm
6.
1:00pm
7.
1:30pm
8.

_____________________________________________________________________________




Share