Climate Justice Conference 2022
On behalf of Southern Oregon University’s Social Justice and Equity Center, we would like to invite your participation in the first annual Southern Oregon Climate Justice Conference to be held in October, 2022! This conference will be held in person in Ashland, Oregon on the SOU campus, and a hybrid attendance option will be available.
About the Conference
Join us in October 2022 to discuss, learn, and take action toward centering racial equity and social justice in the climate change resistance and resilience movements. The goal of the conference is to accelerate the pace with which a racial equity lens is integrated into regional climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts. Centering of BIPOC experiences and adopting a racial equity lens for planning and decision making is urgently needed. By convening individuals and organizations from racial justice and social equity arenas with those working toward climate change resilience, this conference hopes to build a more equitable future where BIPOC and historically marginalized communities are less disproportionately impacted by a changing climate.
This one-day conference will feature case study presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and keynote speakers from Southern Oregon and beyond, around these three themes:
- Climate justice activism and action
- Adopting a racial equity lens – for individuals, for groups, and for action
- Learning lessons about equity and resilience from the 2020 fires
Call for Proposals
The Climate Justice Conference invites individuals, groups and organizations doing social justice and racial equity work, and environmental and climate change advocacy groups that have a strong equity focus, to submit session proposals. A full Call for Proposals will be issued in spring 2022.
Registration
Conference date and registration details will be announced in spring 2022!
Connect
You can reach conference organizers with questions at ecos@sou.edu. Use the form below to get on our mailing list to stay up to date and receive announcements.
Southern Oregon University is located within the ancestral homelands of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawa peoples who lived here since time immemorial. These Tribes were displaced during rapid Euro-American colonization, the Gold Rush, and armed conflict between 1851 and 1856. In the 1850s, discovery of gold and settlement brought thousands of Euro-Americans to their lands, leading to warfare, epidemics, starvation, and villages being burned. In 1853 the first of several treaties were signed, confederating these Tribes and others together – who would then be referred to as the Rogue River Tribe. These treaties ceded most of their homelands to the United States, and in return they were guaranteed a permanent homeland reserved for them. At the end of the Rogue River Wars in 1856, these Tribes and many other Tribes from western Oregon were removed to the Siletz Reservation and the Grand Ronde Reservation. Today, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians are living descendants of the Takelma, Shasta, and Latgawa peoples of this area. We encourage YOU to learn about the land you reside on, and to join us in advocating for the inherent sovereignty of Indigenous people.
Contact the Sustainability Center
SOU Student Sustainability Center
1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Stevenson Union, Room 310
Ashland, OR 97520
541.552.6454
ecos@sou.edu