Description: This panel describes interventions of love, hope, and care that challenge systems of harm such as rape culture, misogyny, and policing, amongst others. It considers how such approaches can mitigate violence within these systems and asks how we as communities mobilize optimism and forward thinking in threatening times.

Presenters:
Aqdas Aftab, Loyola University Chicago
Wazhmah Osman, Temple University
Michelle Renee, Therapeutic Intimacy Specialist & Cuddle Therapist
Sandra Manuel, University Eduardo Mondlane

Description: An intersectional lens is essential to understanding the devastating impacts of our contemporary climate crisis. This panel stresses the urgency of intersectional environmental justice and provides examples of such impacts to demonstrate the irreconcilable connections between land, gender, violence, capitalism, and race, and offer ideas for action.

Presenters:
Kishi Ducre, Syracuse University
Zacary E. Wilson-Fetrow, James Wood Law
Jessica Martínez Cruz, University of Michigan Post-Doctoral Fellow
E. Edna Wangui, Ohio University

Description:  As Mia Mingus asks us, “What if accountability wasn’t scary?”  This workshop is designed to explore ways to create ease and softness in our accountability practices with self and others.   Oftentimes, even when we mean no offense, our actions, words, and beliefs may be harmful to others.   This is not a reason to retreat to shame and inaction. It is an invitation to lean into curiosity and compassion. To resist harm, is not to say that we won’t ever cause harm. It is to say that our communities and relationships don’t have to be shattered when it does happen.

Presenter:  Dane Hudson, Ruth Ellis Cente

Description: How can we continue to move past rigid gender norms that constrict people’s lives and well-being? What do masculinities and femininities that lie outside of rigid and often harmful notions look like and feel like? This panel explores gender beyond binaries in contexts of immigration, technology, and sexuality.

Presenters:
Frances Vicioso, Co-Creating Culture founder
Allison Wolf, Universidad de los Andes
Raed El-Rafei, University of Pittsburgh
Eli Kean, Northwestern University

Description:  This panel thinks through relationships, love, and care networks outside of state structures to ask how reimagining such ties can lead towards liberation for all.

Presenters:
Aniruddha Dutta, University of Iowa
Chanée Jackson Kendall, Black polyamory activist
Os Keyes, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Roma de las Heras Gómez, sexual educator & activist

Description: Technologies such as AI inhabit the daily lives of many people in Global Norths. Inside and outside of these same wealthy nations, people lack access to knowledge, are unaware of how propaganda and censorship shape their lives, and struggle for knowledge resources. This panel speaks to the many different intertwinings of technology and knowledge.

Presenters:
Yvette Granata, University of Michigan
Josh Moon, Kalamazoo College
Lorelei d’Andriole, Michigan State University
Teresa Helena Moreno, University of Illinois – Chicago

Description: What lessons can we learn from on-the-ground activists responding to immediate needs in our communities? This panel brings together presentations that speak to multiple grassroots strategies that can have major impact, both local and beyond.

Presenters:
Ana Grujić & Adrienne Hill, Buffalo Niagara LGBTQ History Project
Bochra Triki, Tunisian feminist and LGBTQ activist
Shona Espinoza, Community Organizer & Activist 
Meg Perret, Texas A&M University