Aftermath of #Petrocultures2024 last week: colleagues are now sending emails urging the Academic Senate to take up the matter of #policing on campus. Because there was a SERIOUS police presence/perimeter. A number of attendees dropped out in protest of that alone... & I don't blame them one bit
I think it's gonna take a lot more than eloquent letters... And unf I don't think we should plan any more conferences for police state campuses, ever again
It was a pleasure to be a part of the keynote panel at the #Petrocultures2024 conference. I got to share my work with an engaged and insightful audience, and I learned so much from the panels.
The general public is invited to tomorrow's #EnvironmentalJustice plenary panel featuring Nalleli Cobo (People Not Pozos), Jeffrey Linn @ConspiracyOfCartographers, and Jessica Henson (Olin Studio), moderated by Juan De Lara. We had a lot of flux with our programming but happy to share this.
Months ago, we had planned to hold the reception in the "park" on campus where students later put up their encampment, that administrators & police then removed. It would have felt awful to hold it there under these circumstances, so we moved to a state park a few miles away with oil extraction as backdrop for the recreational setting.
My heroic colleague bought snacks and beverages and and served them out of his trunk, which saved us probably $19,000 too.
So here’s why we held reception outdoors: this morning someone who was in attendance reported that their partner woke up today with Covid. They have now stayed home from conf today out of abundance of caution, but people were probably exposed or would have been indoors
We also have a mask policy for indoor conference spaces (it’s required) but compliance has been low so… this is why I haven’t been doing in-person conferences and will continue to abstain 😷😩#Petrocultures2024#CovidIsNotOver
Today, I’m happy to report, masking went wayyy up. Not perfect but most people just needed a reminder. Hope is not lost. #Petrocultures2024#CovidIsNotOver
In a different world I might be posting more about people’s talks but that’s not the world in which I find myself.
Howver, today’s plenary was a hastily-organized roundtable on the politics of divestment from people who’ve organized divestment campaigns at #USC and elsewhere, glad it came together #Petrocultures2024
The final challenge: getting masked people to not reflexively lower their masks to speak