The goal of the symposium will be specifically to push our conversations about environmental challenges beyond a focus on environmental racism and toxics and towards the proactive partnerships, successful community activism, and emerging conversations between government, industry, science, the academy, activist organizations, and local communities that are giving a new generation ideas for sustainable alternatives and hope for the future.

Scheduled keynote/plenary speakers include literary critic Annette Kolodny (The Lay of the Land, The Land Before Her, Failing the Future), writer and activist Demetria Martinez (Breathing Between the Lines, Mother Tongue, The Devil's Workshop, and Three Times a Woman), and environmental historian Angus Wright (To Inherit the Earth, The Death of Ramón González).

Tucson is an ideal place to hold the symposium because it is so centrally located to a number of grassroots actions and environmental justice groups, including Comadres, a binational, multicultural group of women which is fighting the toxic effects that have resulted from the location of over 80 maquilas (transnational corporations located on the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexico border since 1965). One of the prominent features of the symposium will be a field trip, popularly dubbed the "Colonia Tour" which will be guided by Teresa Leal, founder of Comadres and Codirector of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ, an umbrella group for over 80 indigenous, labor, and environmental groups, which is active along the border in the Southwest and Mexico). Those electing to take the trip will travel by bus to Nogales, Sonora, just one hour and fifteen minutes south of Tucson. There, we will tour one or more of the "colonias" (small squatter villages built to house maquila workers) as well as one or more of the more progressive maquilas which are attempting to address environmental problems.

Leal will discuss the struggle of environmental groups who face the complicated high tech issues caused by globalization and international trade agreements which ignore the social, cultural and environmental impacts on local communities on the U.S./Mexico border. The field trip will also include a demonstration of a partnership between community members and scholars from the University of Arizona's Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) who are working to re-vegetate hillsides.

The symposium format will stress the importance of interaction among the artists, activists, academics, scientists, and government and industry representatives who attend, and will therefore integrate dynamic, experiential-based presentations with more traditional panel formats and readings by creative writers. Activists and graduate students are encouraged to send proposals.

Proposals may be submitted for entire sessions, presentations, performances, films, roundtables, workshops, conversations, or individual papers. The symposium invites discussion on a diversity of topics from a variety of disciplines, including:

· Interdisciplinary approaches to environmental justice, activism, literature, history, anthropology, political ecology, and ecocriticism

· The political ecology of free trade

· The impact of globalization and transnational capitalism on the environment

· How to bring writing and teaching to bear on public policy and educational initiatives, public outreach, publishing, and environmental stewardship

· How to facilitate collaboration between the various sectors of the environmental movement, government, academia, and the arts

· How to teach courses in environmental literature, history, anthropology, etc. which address the environmental justice and toxics movements, political ecology, globalization, corporate capitalism, etc.

· How to move discussions of environmental justice beyond a focus on environmental racism and towards practical solutions for solving problems and promoting sustainable alternatives (such as organic farming, community co-ops, etc.)

Send inquiries and one-page proposals by May 31, 2004 (email preferred; no attachments please) to BOTH Joni Adamson (jadamson@u.arizona.edu) and Tina Gianquitt (tinagian@mines.edu). Be sure to indicate whether or not you or your panel members will need multimedia equipment, and specifically what equipment you will need.

*Note: Conference organizers will make every effort to keep housing costs low and/or potentially free for activists and graduate students. Spanish translation will also be provided. Activists and graduate students should note their individual housing and/or language needs on their proposal submissions.