Performing Diverse Environmentalisms Symposium (3-5 March, 2017)

26 Feb Performing Diverse Environmentalisms Symposium (3-5 March, 2017)

Performing Diverse Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture at the Crux of Ecological Change
Bloomington, Indiana, March 3-5, 2017

Symposium website: https://dertindiana.wordpress.com/symposium

The Indiana University Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology is pleased to host this  symposium that brings together leading scholars to promote understanding of the roles of expressive culture in situations of ecological challenge and to stimulate collaborative research on the diverse environmentalisms of local and indigenous groups, whose perspectives often are neglected in public discourses about the environment. Rooted in local communities and indigenous practices, the genres and forms of expressive culture­­—including songs, stories, handicrafts, and ritual and activist practices—offer powerful resources to individuals and communities as they seek to interpret and manage ecological change. The central goals of this symposium are to formulate a typology of diverse environmentalisms, to trace the social and political dynamics of performance genres implicated in environmental discourse, to articulate methodologies for both research and collaborative environmental projects, and to identify a set of exemplary case studies that will effectively communicate the constitutive role of expressive culture at the crux of ecological change. We hope that this symposium will establish the performance of diverse environmentalisms as “a thing,” which to say, as one viable and even necessary perspective on ecological change and environmental management.