Schedule and Events

Panel presentations will be asynchronous, posted to the conference website and available for registrants to view any time during the dates of the conference, July 26-August 6.

ASLE 2021 Panels by Stream

For synchronous events, such as plenary Q&A, Stream discussions, mentoring sessions, and social gatherings, times are listed in this schedule at a glance below.

ASLE 2021 Preliminary Schedule

We are delighted to announce the plenary speakers for EmergencE/Y

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times best-selling author of WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS, finalist for the Kirkus Prize in non-fiction, and recently named the Barnes and Noble Book of the Year. She is also the author of four books of poetry, and is poetry editor of SIERRA, the national magazine of the Sierra Club. Awards for her writing include a fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Council, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for poetry, National Endowment of the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her writing has appeared in NYTimes Magazine, ESPN Magazine, and twice in Best American Poetry. She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.

Brionté McCorkle is Executive Director of Georgia Conservation Voters. She has dedicated her career to teaching people how to self organize and building strategic partnerships that protect the environment, advance racial equity, and grow civic engagement. Brionté earned a B.S. in Public Policy from Georgia State University and minored in Spanish. In 2014, she led the Georgia Sierra Club’s involvement in the successful effort to expand MARTA to Clayton County. Brionté now serves as the Director of the Georgia Conservation Voters where she works to secure a more just and sustainable future by electing pro-environment candidates and holding elected officials accountable for their actions and votes. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Atlanta Beltline Tax Allocation District Advisory Committee. She is an advisor and consultant to governmental and nonprofit organizations who are looking to develop internal and external equity practices and advance public engagement campaigns.

Anthropologist and geographer Zoe Todd is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She researches human-animal and human-environmental relations, Indigenous legal orders and (de)colonial praxis in Canada. Her recent work focuses on Métis legal traditions and philosophy, fish, extinction, resource extraction, and the Anthropocene, with a specific focus on the Lake Winnipeg watershed. Todd is a member of the Editorial Board for Journal for the Anthropology of North American (JANA), was a 2018-2019 Yale Presidential Visiting Fellow in the Program in the History of Science and Medicine, and was part of the Fluid Boundaries team that was shortlisted to represent Canada at the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale.

AM Kanngieser is a geographer, sound artist and Marie Curie Research Fellow in Geography at Royal Holloway University of London. They are the author of Experimental Politics and the Making of Worlds (2013) and Between Sound and Silence: Listening towards Environmental Relations (forthcoming), and have published in a range of interdisciplinary journals including South Atlantic Quarterly, Progress in Human Geography, and Environment and Planning D. Their collaborative audio work has been featured on Documenta 14 Radio, BBC 3, ABC Radio National, The Natural History Museum London, Arts Centre Melbourne, Radio del Museo Reina Sofía and Deutschland Radio. They are a collaborator in the Institute for Freshwater Fish Futures. Todd and Kanngieser will discuss their collaborative work on “Environmental Kin Studies”.

Mapping Migraciones is a year-long project by Audubon California with National Audubon Society and Latino Outdoors celebrating Latinidad, migration, and the stories that connect us across the Americas. Pedro Hernandez and Tania Romero will discuss the program in a live keynote address on Thursday, July 29 from 12-1pm Eastern.

Pedro Hernández is Audubon California’s Climate Policies Engagement Program Manager and leads the organization’s local, state, and federal climate advocacy. He brings years of experience working with several environmental organizations based in the San Joaquin Valley advocating on issues like accessible drinking water, air quality, habitat restoration, and protection of public lands. Prior to his career in the nonprofit sector, Pedro served as the Chair of the History Department at his alma mater, Laton High School, and has worked for many years in the educational sector with rural communities. He received his Bachelor’s degree with honors in United States and Latin American History from the University of California, Berkeley.

Tania Romero was born and raised in in the concrete jungles of South Los Angeles, CA. Growing up in an urban environment, she believed Los Angeles did not have any nature or wildlife. She now knows nature can be found everywhere, even in urban settings. She is passionate about birds, providing nature connections to urban communities, and social justice in the conservation field. Tania received a
bachelor’s degree in 2016 from the University of California of San Diego (UCSD) in biology, and a double minor in environmental studies and ethnic studies. Her early career has consisted of mostly of fieldwork ranging from point count surveys, bird banding, nest monitoring in the Los Angeles area, Oregon Forests, and Costa Rica. She also has experience in habitat restoration, environmental education, and youth engagement. She currently works as the Program Coordinator at the Audubon Center at Debs Park managing the native plant nursery, community science projects, and the Mapping Migraciones Project. She recently also co-established the Bear Divide Banding Station in the Angeles National Forest.

Conference Workshops

The workshops will be “live” events offered only at the time listed, and you MUST be registered for the full conference to attend. They will be available free of additional charges to all registrants, but you will need to pre-register using the links below.

Learning Refugia Workshop
Monday, July 26
12-1pm Eastern time (US and Canada)

Please join us at this kickoff event, where we can begin to build our conference community through shared activities. #WalkingAloneandTogether is a project dreamed up by Marijke Hecht, Michelle King, and Shimira Williams during the pandemic, to find ways to stay connected to each other and to the environment. They will share insights of their journey with us, and encourage us to develop our own refugium. Here is an anticipatory set document they have put together for participants. Pre-register using this form by July 16.

Writing & Wellbeing
Tuesday, July 27
4:00-5:30pm Eastern time (US and Canada)

Are the pressures of productivity, perfectionism, and/or the pandemic taking a toll on your health and wellbeing? Establish a calming, nurturing writing routine that will replenish your physical and emotional energy rather than sucking you dry.

Helen Sword is a poet, scholar, master teacher, and international expert on academic, professional, and creative writing across the disciplines. Pre-register for the event by July 16.

My Climate Story Workshop (sorry, this workshop and waitlist is currently full)
Thursday, August 5
2-3pm
My Climate Story is a public research project that makes global climate change personal, sponsored by the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. This interactive workshop intends to create climate conversations and guide participants to recognize how local climate issues are impacting their lives in the here and now–and shaping their life stories.

Limited to 24 registrants on a first come, first served basis, register using this form by July 16.

Meet Workshop Leaders

Tsemone Ogbemi is a recent graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English. Through her work as a public research intern at the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, she became interested in the connections between art and climate activism and the potential of fiction to bring safer worlds into being starting with the act of imagination.

Danny Cooper (he/him) is a recent graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn with majors in Environmental Science and Creative Writing. He’s been a member of PPEH’s climate storytelling team since January 2020, working with the team on creating and facilitating climate literacy workshops, running the project’s Instagram page, and developing another type of climate story – beyond humans climate stories.

Terrain.org Author Reading

Monday, July 26, at 5pm PT/8pm ET
Conference sponsors Terrain.org will host a creative writing event, featuring Kim Stafford, Elizabeth Dodd, and José Angel Araguz, moderated by Terrain.org assistant poetry editor Anne Haven McDonnell. Registration is free but required via this form.

Author/Publisher Reception

Monday August 2, 4-5:30 pm on Zoom
There will be a short introductory program, including celebrating the winners of the Graduate Student Paper Awards. This will be followed by meet and greet time with authors and publishers in breakout rooms. If you are registered for the conference, have had a book published from 2019-2021, and would like to participate, please sign up via this form by July 16, 2021.

Publisher’s Exhibit

We are planning a virtual Publisher’s Exhibit, with links to participating publisher curated environmental humanities virtual exhibit pages. Publishers may sign up to participate via this form by July 16, 2021.

Building BIPOC ASLE Communities: Diversity Caucus Networking/Social

Wednesday, July 28, 12-1:30 PM EDT

Join the ASLE Diversity Caucus for a networking event aimed at cultivating BIPOC and international scholarship and developing connections amongst junior and senior scholars.

Attendees will have the opportunity to speak with other scholars and mentors in themed breakout sessions, encompassing topics such as creative sharing and publishing, public humanities and collaborative projects, peer review and academic publishing, developing research interests, and international scholarship. Designated mentors assigned to each breakout session will share their experience and expertise with these pertinent topics.

Participants are encouraged to rotate among the sessions to speak to a diverse set of mentors and share their projects. At the end of the session, participants will come together in a larger group and brainstorm next steps for how ASLE can support BIPOC scholars and initiatives.

Confirmed Sessions and Participants:

Creative Sharing/Publishing
Marisol Cortez
May Joseph

Public Humanities / Collaboration / Community
Bishnupriya Ghosh
Astrida Neimanis

Academic Publishing
Christina Gerhardt

Research Interests
Anita Girvan

International Scholarship:
Kiu-wai Chiu
Serenella Iovino

Note: List of session mentors may change as we add more participants.

Mentoring Sessions

For many years the ASLE Mentoring Program has worked with junior scholars to enrich their intellectual and creative lives. The following mentoring activities are on the schedule for ASLE 2021.

Speed Mentoring

We are experimenting with a new format for virtual mentoring, in which mentees can meet with up to 4 mentors in an hour, in 15-minute blocks, round-robin style. We will pair mentees with mentors so they can get guidance on such topics as pedagogy, networking, non-academic careers, digital humanities, public humanities, public writing, and more.

Dates and Times:

Monday, August 2, 1-2pm EDT

Wednesday, August 4, 12-1pm

Sign-up is required to participate in this program for both mentors and mentees via this form. Please register by July 16.

Mentoring Topical Sessions

You must be registered for the conference to participate, but no pre-registration is required.

Navigating the Peer Review System
Tuesday, July 27, 12-1pm EDT
Moderated by Kiu-Wai Chu, Tina Gerhardt, and Fourth River editors

Book Proposals
Wednesday, July 28, 4-5pm EDT
Moderated by Simmons Buntin, Michael Mlekoday, Cajetan Iheka, and Jesse Oak Taylor

Non-Tenure-Track Career Development
Thursday, July 29, 4-5pm
Moderated by Stephen Siperstein, Clare Echterling, and Araceli Hernández-Laroche

Applying for Academic Jobs
Friday, July 30, 1:30-2:30pm
Moderated by Allison Carruth, April Anson, and Tyler Harper

For questions, please contact ASLE Mentoring Program Co-Coordinator Erin James ([email protected])

Stream Live Discussion Times

Each of the twelve conference streams will have an hour of live conversations during the conference, a portion of which will be stream-wide and another portion will be in small panel cluster breakouts.

Disease and Health Humanities
Friday, July 30, 10-11am EDT
Moderator: Gina Stamm

Migrant Ecocriticism
Friday, July 30, 3-4pm EDT
Moderators: Rina Garcia Chua, Lisa Fink

Emergent Environments
Monday, August 2, 11am-12pm EDT
Moderators: Heather Sullivan, Caroline Schaumann

Speculative Ecomedia
Monday, August 2, 2:30-3:30pm EDT (Note slight time change!)
Moderators: Christy Tidwell, Bridgitte Barclay

Environmental Justice
Tuesday, August 3, 10-11am EDT
Moderators: Shane Hall, Ryan Hediger

Elemental Rhetoric
Tuesday, August 3, 3-4pm EDT
Moderators: Paul Formisano, Michaelann Nelson

Public Engagements
Wednesday, August 4, 10-11am EDT
Moderators: Jennifer Ladino, Bart Welling

The Pluriverse
Wednesday, August 4, 2-3pm EDT
Moderator: Jeremy Elliott

Critical Pedagogies
Thursday, August 5, 11am-12pm EDT
Moderators: Aubrey Streit-Krug, Melissa Sexton, Kristin Van Tassel

Indigenous Ecocriticism
Thursday, August 5, 4-5pm EDT
Moderators: Kyle Bladow, Abigail Perez Aguilera

Eco-Theory
Friday, August 6, 12-1pm EDT
Moderators: Nicole Seymour, Carolyn Fornoff

Energy Humanities
Friday, August 6, 3-4pm EDT
Moderators: Jacob Goessling, Jordan Kinder