The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Kansas is hosting an international conference on Indigenous responses to climate change in the Americas.
The center is expecting 30 participants from nine countries, including academics and Indigenous leaders, for the hybrid conference, Brent Metz, director of CLACS, said via email.
“Presenters and audience members hail from Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States, and Canada,” according to the CLACS website.
Just a few of the many topics include papers on “Political Engagements and Responses to Environmental Precarity among Mapuche-Huilliche Indigenous People in Chiloé, Chile”; “Pesticides and the Perception of Indigenous Peoples in Dourados”; “Care Work as Energy Justice: Women’s Struggles in Mexico”; and many more.
Poster sessions will include Metz’s work, “The Long History of Ch’orti’ Maya Adaptations to Rainfall Insecurity in Guatemala and Honduras.” There are several panels planned that will include experts both in person and online speaking on a wide range of topics, including ecological restoration, conservation, forestry, communal lands, risk of appropriation and much more.
“Presentations will be in English and Spanish, and a Zoom simultaneous interpretation service will be available,” according to the website. “In-person participants in need of interpretation services should bring their cell phone and be sure to have Zoom loaded onto it.”
A welcome, reception and social hour will open the conference, beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28 at the Oread Hotel.
Speakers begin at 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 29 in the Parlor Room at Kansas Memorial Union (1301 Jayhawk Blvd.), and Friday’s events continue until 5 p.m. The conference resumes with a fourth paper session at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 30 in the same location, and Saturday’s events continue through 2 p.m.
The hybrid conference will be held in person at the union and via Zoom. Registration is free and available at this link.
Visit the CLACS website at clacs.ku.edu for more information and to view a full program, which includes information in English and Spanish, as well as abstracts from many of the people who will speak.
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