Conference Healing Communities

We invite you to submit a paper for the interdisciplinary Healing Communities conference to be held in Santa Barbara on Friday, February 24 and Saturday, February 25, 2023.  The “Healing Communities” conference will explore the processes and communities of healing that address trauma as a result of three distinct yet intimately linked social problems: capitalism, colonialism, and environmental degradation. Healing Communities welcomes contributions that  examine these topics empirically or theoretically and  highlight how  communities in Santa Barbara are actively  engaged in processes of healing.

The interdisciplinary Healing Communities conference not only aims to foster discussion, debate, and  learning, but also hopes to serve as a launching pad for future collaborations.  As such, we welcome participants from all fields in the humanities and social sciences, as well as local non-profits and community organizations, and to submit a proposal for a 20 minute  presentation. Proposals that engage with how communities organize and develop alternative practices to sustain communities outside of institutional structures and the organizations forming part of this process - in the present and the past - are encouraged. We also invite local (Santa Barbara County) community organizations to discuss their work in these areas in the present-day community in which we live. This conference aims to bring together scholars and non-profit organizations to share their experiences on how healing is currently being pursued in our society.

Additional subjects or or topics might include (but are not limited to) how:

• local and informal knowledge can foster a sense of communal belonging and promote healing
• socially marginalized segments of the population experience and heal from trauma 
• communities maintain and build alternative economies as a process of healing from the violence of capitalist exploitation
• strategies that communities have put in practice to heal multigenerational trauma caused by colonial violence
• communities seek to heal by reappropriating their natural environments and restoring damaged relationships to the land and the non-human beings that inhabit it
• communities use alternative economies, social enterprises, or cooperatives in addressing trauma or healing from different types of capitalism, experiences of colonialism or forms of environmental degradation

Paper submission:

Please send your 250 word abstract with a title and a 1-page CV or a short biographical statement with contact information to healingcommunities@history.ucsb.edu by Friday, October 21. The conference will be held in English and both abstracts and papers should be submitted in English. Please indicate whether you would like to present in person or on Zoom.

Timeline:

Proposal submission deadline: Friday, October 21, 2022

Notification of acceptance: Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Conference: Friday, February 24 - Saturday, February 25, 2023