Conference Theme:

Social and Epistemic Justice: Imagining Sustainable Futures through Agency.

Humanity faces multiple interlocking crises, including deepening socio-political and epistemic tensions, across geographies, temporalities, and individual and collective biographies. Human, economic, and environmental catastrophes underscore the urgent need for transformative change, solidarity, and imagining sustainable futures. The SANORD 2024 Conference aims to bring together scholars, researchers, practitioners, students, and activists to explore a wide range of research, approaches and practices in the role of higher education in the promotion of global justice and equity through solidarity and partnerships.

The Conference will provide a platform for addressing the polycrisis of the 21st century, and critically reconsidering the possibilities for critical knowledge-making and sustainable practice. The Conference encourages participants to rethink classical and contemporary ideas of justice, sustainability, and futurity, with a focus on knowledge and education, health, economics, environment, food, and partnerships. We invite submission of abstracts for oral and poster presentations, symposia, roundtable discussions, panel discussions, and workshops. We welcome submissions from a range of perspectives and disciplines.

THEMATIC TRACKS

  • Theme 1: Epistemic justice, knowledge production and educational equity

  • Theme 2: Equity in global health

  • Theme 3: Economic (de)growth, sustainability, and solidarity

  • Theme 4: Environmental justice and climate action

  • Theme 5: Food security and sustainable agriculture

  • Theme 6: Solidarity and partnerships for sustainable development

THEMATIC TRACKS BREAKDOWN:

  • Indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development
  • Contestation for representation and authority in higher education
  • Citizen science and participatory action research
  • Open access and open data movements
  • Liberatory and decolonising methodologies in higher education Decolonising early childhood and girls’ education, STEM, and other priority areas Equitable quality education
  • Digital technologies, training, and divides
  • Data privacy, security and digital rights
  • Artificial Intelligence
This theme examines whose knowledge is valued, how knowledge is produced, and whose voices are heard in higher education. It challenges Eurocentrism and champions knowledge pluralism. It calls for recognising and validating diverse ways of knowing that have been devalued, silenced or omitted, particularly from the Global South. This theme explores decolonial, anti-colonial and liberatory approaches to research and knowledge production that promote epistemic justice and knowledge democracy. Given that higher education is a critical driver of sustainable development, this theme also examines obstacles and advances in promoting inclusive, equitable and quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all, irrespective of biography and geography.
  • Sexual and reproductive health rights
  • Non-communicable and chronic diseases Health impacts of climate change
  • Mental health and psychosocial support Health and systems disparities
  • Social-structural determinants of health and sustainable development Health care in conditions of war
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all is fundamental to sustainable development. Despite progress, massive health inequities persist both within and between countries. This theme delves into the systemic and structural barriers leading to disparities in health status and access to quality, and affordable healthcare across multiple geographies and social particularities. It scrutinises the social determinants of health and how conditions of violence and genocide, as well as intersecting inequalities shape health burdens, risks and outcomes.
  • Solidarity economies and poverty eradication
  • Rethinking sustainability in women’s economic empowerment
  • Youth Employment, poverty, and campaigns for degrowth Global trade agreements and just growth
  • Progressive taxation and preparations
This theme problematises hegemonic ideas of economic growth and development and welcomes contributions that critically examine approaches to solidarity economies and theories and practices of degrowth. It explores policies, innovations and initiatives aimed at addressing economic disparities, skewed development patterns, and persistent influences of the colonial logic of extraction and exploitation of both human and non-human species. This theme encourages contributions that raise questions about the philosophical and ideological claims underlying discourses and practices of economic sustainability and visions of a pluralistic world order.
  • Environmental racism and social movements
  • Sustainable cities and human settlements
  • Ecosystems, biodiversity and conservation
  • Renewable energy transitions
  • Disaster risk reduction and resilience
  • Climate change education, policy and advocacy
Climate change impacts those who have contributed least to the problem. The injustice of the human-caused environmental crisis is that its effects disproportionately burden the world’s most vulnerable people and nations. This theme spotlights the inextricable links between environmental protection and human rights, amplifying voices from the frontlines of the polycrisis, including ecosystem degradation, pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change impacts. This theme also brings particular attention to anthropogenic environmental damage.
  • Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification
  • Land tenure and land rights advocacy
  • Food loss, waste and overconsumption
  • Food sovereignty and nutrition security
  • Urban and peri-urban agriculture
  • Indigenous food systems
Ending hunger and achieving food sovereignty, food security and food democracy requires transforming our food systems and their underlying mechanisms of capitalist production. This theme is attentive to non-extractive modes of food production, distribution and consumption, and the macrostructural obstacles encountered by marginalised producers and consumers. This theme holistically explores interlinked pathways to promote nutrition and sustainable agriculture through enhancing smallholder livelihoods, reducing food waste, strengthening local food environments, and promoting dietary shifts.
  • Multi-stakeholder engagement and participatory processes University-community partnerships
  • Public-private partnerships
  • South-South, South-North, and Triangular cooperation
  • Global knowledge-sharing and technology transfer mechanisms
The SDGs can only be realised through global solidarity and revitalised partnerships. Revitalising the global partnership for sustainable development is one of the key underpinnings for achieving the SDGs. This theme explores innovative models of collaboration across stakeholders, sectors, regions and realms to mobilise resources, share knowledge, promote accountability and deliver transformative change through principled and effective development cooperation. This theme also examines both power differentials, models of symmetrical multi-stakeholder collaboration and ethical solidarities.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

The deadline for abstract submission is 31 July 2024. Abstracts should be limited to

250 words for paper presentations. Proposals for oral and poster presentations, symposia, roundtable discussions, panel discussions, and workshops must be uploaded as a PDF document and include all requested details.

CONFERENCE LANGUAGE

The primary language of the Conference is English.

For enquiries

sanordconference2024@uwc.ac.za
Please visit this conference portal in the coming weeks for the latest updates

Important Dates:

Deadline for abstract submission: 31 July 2024

Notification of accepted abstracts: 31 August 2024 (provisional)

Registration opens: 01 September 2024

Registration closes: 15 October 2024

SUBMIT ABSTRACT

Contact Information:

For inquiries regarding abstract submission please contact sanordconference2024@uwc.ac.za

We look forward to receiving your submissions and to your participation in SANORD Conference 2024!