Schedule and Events

The program of sessions including dates and times is posted at the conference website: Schedule Page, as well as via the links at the top of this page. A mobile app for the conference schedule-on-the-go is coming soon. There will also be a printed program distributed to all attendees at registration.

Tentative Schedule at a Glance

Tuesday, July 8
9am – noon: Pre-Conference Workshops
9am – 1:00pm: Field excursions
10:30 – 11:30 am: ASLE General Membership Meeting
11:30 – 1pm: Lunch Break
1 – 2:30 pm: Concurrent Session 1
3:00 – 4:30 pm: Concurrent Session 2
5:00 – 6:30 pm: Land Acknowledgement/ Opening Plenary
6:30 – 8:00 pm: Opening Reception

Wednesday, July 9
8:30 –10 am: Concurrent Session 3
10:30 am –12 pm: Concurrent Session 4
12 – 1:30 pm: Lunch Break
1:30 – 2:45 pm: Plenary Session 2
3:15 – 4:45 pm: Concurrent Session 5
5 – 6 pm: Interest Groups/Regional Collaboratories Roundtable Meetings
6 – 7:30 pm: Authors / Awards Reception

Thursday, July 10
8:30 – 10 am: Concurrent Session 6
10:30 am – 11:45 am: Plenary Session 3
12 – 1:30 pm: Lunch
12 – 1:30 pm: Regional Collaboratories Planning Lunch
1:30 – 3 pm: Concurrent Session 7
3:30 – 5 pm Concurrent Session 8
5:15 – 6:45 pm Diversity Event/Snack Break
7 – 10 pm: Cultural Crawl, Featuring Creative Readings, Studio art demo, mural art walk, etc.

Friday, July 11
8:30 – 10:00 am: Concurrent Session 9
10:30 am – 12 pm: Concurrent Session 10
12 – 1:30 pm: Lunch Break
1:30 – 3 pm: Concurrent Session 11
3:30 – 5 pm: Concurrent Session 12
5:30 – 6:45 pm: Closing Plenary
6:45 – 8:15 pm: Closing Reception

We are delighted to announce the confirmed plenary speakers for “Collective Atmospheres.”

Hsuan Hsu is Professor of English at UC Davis, and author of The Smell of Risk: Atmospheric Disparities and the Olfactory Arts, and Air Conditioning.

Craig Santos Perez, winner of the 2023 National Book Award for poetry

JT Roane, author of Dark Agoras: Insurgent Black Social Life and the Politics of Place in Philadelphia, and co-leader of the Black Ecologies Lab at Rutgers

Kaia Sand, poet, activist, and Executive Director of Street Roots (Portland, OR)

Nerea Calvillo , architect and author of Aeropolis: Queering Air in Toxicpolluted Worlds (virtual keynote)

Conference Workshops

Pre-conference workshops in both virtual and in-person formats will be open to all conference participants for an additional $20 registration fee. Register for workshops on a first come/first served basis as part of the full conference registration (opening in early March). The names of all in-person workshop participants will be listed in the conference program, and virtual participants will be listed in the online schedule.
Full descriptions of each workshop can be found at https://site.pheedloop.com/event/asle2025/schedule–click the View Details link to read them.

IN-PERSON WORKSHOPS

“Writing Toward Nature”
led by Miranda Schmidt

“Writing From a Changing Place”
Led by Tamara Dean

“Wikipedia, Academia, and ASLE: Research Methodology for Combating Injustice & Harm in Online Knowledge Repositories”
Led by Kyle Keeler

“Tending the Plant Humanities”
Led by Aubrey Streit Krug and Megan Kaminski

“Public EH: A practicum in place-based, community-engaged collaboration”
Led by Allison Carruth and Bethany Wiggin

“Plant Breathing and Ecocrip Respirations: Planting Disabled Futures”
Led by Petra Kuppers and Orchid Tierney

“Bridging the Gap with Scientists”
Led by Heidi Scott and Alaina Gallagher

VIRTUAL WORKSHOPS

Note: virtual workshops will be open for registration to virtual conference presenters only for the first two weeks after registration begins, to give them the chance to enhance their conference participation in this way. If the virtual workshops are not full at that point, they will open up for other attendees to register as well.

“Storytelling in the EH (environmental humanities) Classroom”
Led by Jai (Zai) Apate

“Tropospheric Materialities,”
Led by May Joseph and Sofia Varino

Exhibition Hall

July 8-11, hours TBA
We invite book and journal publishers, and other organizations involved in the environmental humanities, to join us and exhibit their titles during the conference. A full prospectus of exhibit, advertising and sponsor opportunities is linked below.

Authors’ and Awards Reception

Wednesday, July 9, 6 – 7:30 pm
This event is a longstanding highlight of ASLE conferences, where we bring together authors and their audiences to eat, drink, and discuss and purchase books. There is also a short program planned to announce ASLE writing awards. Members of ASLE are welcome to sign up; there is no fee to participate, but you must be registered for the conference.

Attendees who have published a book or books since the last in-person ASLE conference (July 2023) have the opportunity to meet and greet readers, as well as sell and sign copies. If you fit this description and wish to be included in this year’s reception, please fill out this form by May 15, so we can order table space and include your book in conference program information. There is currently room for approximately 60 authors to reserve a space on a first come, first served basis. Participants or publishers must arrange to bring copies of books to the event (we recommend 5-10 copies). No advance shipments will be accepted by ASLE or UMD.

Film Shorts Program, curated by the ASLE Ecomedia SIG: TBA

Cultural Crawl

Thursday July 10, 7-10 pm

Full Schedule is TBA, will include a reading of Terrain.org authors at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center. Our event will be centered in the Hyattsville Arts District.

ASLE Diversity Meeting: Supporting BIPOC Communities and Transdisciplinary Collaborations
Date/Time TBA

Join the ASLE diversity caucus for a mixer and conversation on supporting diverse scholarship in the environmental humanities and transdisciplinary collaborations. We welcome ASLE members who are interested in scholarly and creative research that highlight and uplift the voices of historically marginalized communities in the environmental humanities and sciences. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet potential mentors, mentees, and collaborators over structured breakout sessions with facilitators, centering on specific thematic questions. Breakout sessions may cover topics such as academic/creative publishing, transdisciplinary collaborations, and building institutional spaces for global, anti-racist, and decolonial approaches to human-environment relations. After these informal conversations, we will gather as a group to brainstorm ideas for how to support diversity initiatives in the years ahead.

2025 Field Trip Options

Dumbarton Oaks
Tuesday, July 8, 8:00am -12pm (including travel time)
Dumbarton Oaks is a Harvard University research institute, library, museum, and garden located in the Georgetown area of Washington, DC. This trip includes a garden tour with the garden director, 9:30-10:15 am, followed by a rare book visit with the curator 10:15-11:00 am.  Accessibility: the museum is fully accessible, but historic garden is not accessible due to its steep topography.

National Museum of the American Indian
Tuesday, July 8, 9am – 1pm (including travel time)
UMD transit bus will take participants from campus to the museum in DC, where they will have 2 hours for free exploration of the exhibits.  Bus and museum are accessible.

Guilford Woods Walk
Wednesday, July 9, 8-10am
OR
Friday, July 11, 8-10am
This site includes 15 acres of old-growth forest, seriously threatened with removal 3 yrs ago for “development” by UMD, Stopped by Save Guilford Woods campaign, which included many UMD community members. Not accessible, lots of walking involved.

UMD Arboretum and Botanical Gardens
Wednesday, July 9, 11:30am-12:30pm
Arboretum staff will guide a tour of the Wooded Hillock, a natural area with rustic trails, discussing topics such as insect and bird habitats. Not accessible due to walk uphill, uneven ground; no bathrooms, bring a water bottle.
OR
Friday, July 11, 9-10am
Arboretum staff will guide a tour of the Community Learning Garden, discussing topics such as food insecurity, pollinators, and sustainable irrigation techniques. Breathing exercises will start the tour. The garden is ADA accessible.

EJ Movement Exhibit Tour, Hornbake Library
Wednesday, July 9, 3:30-4:30pm
OR
Thursday, July 10, 1-2pm
OR
Friday, July 11, 1-2pm
Jenny Schollaert, Outreach and Engagement Librarian in Special Collections at UMD, will lead a tour of an exhibit focused on the environmental justice movement drawing on special collections, titled Homegrown: An Introduction to the Environmental Justice Movement. Fully accessible.

Field Trip: Hyattsville Food Forest
Thursday, July 10, 7:30 – 10:30am
Learn about the food forest and also volunteer in upkeep (weeding, harvesting, planting etc.). Transportation provided by volunteer guides, not accessible for those with moderate to serious mobility limitations, no bathroom on site.

Field Trip: College Park Nature Walk
Thursday, July 10, 8 – 10am
Start at the Anacostia River Trail to the Paint Branch Trail, then join the Luther Goldman Birding Trail around Lake Artemesia. Michael Ellis, a former Park Ranger of Lake Artemesia and the surrounding trail network and natural areas, will lead the walk. Partial accessibility: the path around the lake is paved and wheelchair accessible.