News
by EHN Team

Online Event – Intersectional Environmental Feminisms in the Digital Space

Updated on August 8, 2022 after the event took place.

Intersectional Environmental Feminisms in the Digital Space

Sponsored by Network in Canadian History and Environment and
Environmental History Now

Part of the Feminist Digital Methods Events & Conference,
|Centre for Feminist Research, York University

On Friday, August 5th, the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE) and EHN hosted a live roundtable discussion, “Intersectional Environmental Feminisms in the Digital Space,” on YouTube. The roundtable featured five environmental scholar and activist panelists including:

Panelists discussed the labour of creating and publishing online digital scholarship and maintaining an online presence on social media and elsewhere and how this work influences and shapes their environmental scholarship and activism. Panelists drew on personal experience, as well as broader trends, to reflect on how their online work intersects with their intersectional feminist values and goals. Audience members were encouraged to ask questions to direct the conversation.

  • How has online publishing and social media changed environmental scholarship and activism?
  • Has the digital space contributed to a more diverse community in environmental circles?
  • How does the digital space help us communicate environmental scholarship and advocate for environmental issues?
  • How do the panelists’ positionalities affect the way in which they are able to inhabit digital spaces?
  • What are the negative aspects of maintaining a digital presence?

This panel was part of the Feminist Digital Methods Events & Conference, sponsored by the Centre for Feminist Research at York University. The main virtual, open-access conference will be held 11-13 August, 2022. This conference aims to foster communities of practice around feminist digital methods by creating intentional space for dialogues, knowledge sharing, workshops, showcases, and presentations.

To register for the Feminist Digital Methods Conference, click here.

Meet the Panelists:

Jessica DeWitt

Jessica DeWitt (she/her)is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, and digital communications strategist. She earned her PhD in History from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. She is an executive member, editor-in-chief, and social media editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). She is also a working board member of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, Girls Rock Saskatoon, and a core organizer of Showing Up For Racial Justice Saskatoon – Treaty Six. A passionate social justice advocate, Jessica focuses on developing digital techniques and communications that bridge the divide between academia and the general public in order to democratize knowledge access.

Madeleine Jubilee Saito

Madeleine Jubilee Saito (she/her) is a cartoonist + illustrator living on Duwamish land in Seattle, Washington. As an artist, she makes intimate, poetic comics about the environment and the sacred, which appeared in the bestselling All We Can Save anthology and were recognized in Best American Comics 2019. Madeleine is a Christian and an anti-capitalist, and currently works as the creative director & operations lead at The All We Can Save Project, where she leads social media, newsletter, and branding + digital campaigns (among other things).

Jacqueline L. Scott

Jacqueline L. Scott (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, Social Justice Education. She is a fellow at the Safina Center. Her research is on the perception of the wilderness in the Black Canadian imagination. In other words, how to make outdoor recreation a more welcoming and inviting space for Black people. It is part of a large project on race, place and nature. Jacqueline is also a writer and speaker on race and nature. Her work has appeared in The Conversation, Canadian Broadcasting Corp, and Spacing. She has been interviewed by Canadian Broadcasting Corp, British Broadcasting Corp, and La Presse.

Ramya Swayamprakash

Ramya Swayamprakash (she/her/Amma) is an Assistant Professor in Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies at the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. A transnational and interdisciplinary environmental scholar who focuses on rivers, dredging, and the place of nature in the Great Lakes, Ramya’s research has been published in academic and public-facing avenues. She takes tea and dredging (not necessarily in that order) seriously. Ramya has also published work on dams in South Asia. As a survivor of domestic abuse and as a single parent, her scholarship is driven by a commitment to social/ecological justice and equity. Ramya is the editor of EHN’s Tools for Change series. 

Diana Valencia-Duarte

Diana Valencia-Duarte (she/ella) is a PhD in History from the University of Exeter. Her research interests range on peasant cultures, socio-environmental conflicts and agroecological food systems, using social sciences and/or historical methods, with emphasis in oral memory, environmental history, gender/generational analysis and decolonial, participative, and interdisciplinary approaches by principle. Her studies have been focused on Colombian peasantries, but she is, and has been, also involved in research and educational projects related with Black communities in the UK and Nigeria. Diana has worked as a content editor for EHN since September 2020.