{"id":45581,"date":"2023-06-07T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=45581"},"modified":"2024-08-09T07:41:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T11:41:02","slug":"capillary-critical-geography-network-hosts-inaugural-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2023\/capillary-critical-geography-network-hosts-inaugural-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Capillary Critical Geography Network Hosts Inaugural Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Capillary Critical Geography Network Hosts Inaugural Conference\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Story by Alyssa Tremblay<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Ainslie Coghill<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a stone\u2019s throw away from where the scenic Rideau Canal meets the thundering Ottawa River, members of the Capillary Critical Geography Network<\/a> gathered at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre on May 25-26, 2023, to talk about climate knowledge, gentrification, migration and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The network\u2019s inaugural conference saw graduate students, post-docs and early-career scholars share their latest research in the field of critical geography \u2013 the study of the physical world and place through a lens of social change and activism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeography was essential to the entry of Indigenous lands into colonial knowledge systems,\u201d said conference co-organizers Jennifer Ridgley<\/a> from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton and Ted Rutland from Concordia University in their welcoming remarks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conference co-organizers Jennifer Ridgley (Carleton University) and Ted Rutland (Concordia University).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


Ridgley and Rutland went on to emphasize how a commitment to social justice must be a core tenet of what they do as critical geographers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cAt its best, critical geography is transformative. We\u2019re not just doing critical research, but building different social relationships as we do so.\u201d<\/p>Jennifer Ridgley (Carleton University) and Ted Rutland (Concordia University), Associate Professors <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The conference was opened by Dara Wawatie-Chabot, Indigenous Lead Researcher for Iron & Earth, a worker-led organization with a mission to empower fossil fuel workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe all have a relationship to the land. We are all travellers, we all come from somewhere, we have all been displaced,\u201d said Wawatie-Chabot, who stressed that real change cannot be achieved simply by \u201cadding more seats at the table\u201d and increasing the representation of Indigenous peoples in spaces established and maintained by settler-colonial violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, as Wawatie-Chabot explained, creating a better world for all requires complete systemic change, the table itself \u201cchopped up for wood and used to create community fires.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Participants chat at the Capillary Critical Geography Network conference at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


The pitfalls of representation politics were further explored in the conference\u2019s keynote talk delivered by Delice Mugabo, Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mugabo, whose work focuses on Black life in Qu\u00e9bec, told the story of Marie-Jos\u00e8phe Ang\u00e9lique, an enslaved Black woman from Portugal who was arrested and publicly executed for allegedly trying to burn down Montr\u00e9al as she attempted to flee the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on recent government efforts to commemorate Ang\u00e9lique as a \u201chero\u201d by renaming public spaces after her, Mugabo illuminated how these placemaking initiatives serve as a \u201cthird mode of captivity\u201d alongside Ang\u00e9lique\u2019s original enslavement and re-capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlace naming and toponymy work to literally capture her in a place she attempted to flee,\u201d said Mugabo, who noted how giving Ang\u00e9lique \u2013 a figure of Black struggle \u2013 a place of \u201chonour\u201d in white society is actually being used to \u201ccleanse the national community of a history and present of anti-Black violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Mugabo leading this discussion of representation just a few blocks from Parliament Hill, an area full of monuments and memorials, was incredibly powerful,\u201d said Ridgley. \u201cHaving her tell this story from Montreal here in Ottawa also helps draw these important connections between our capillaries \u2013 as critical geographers and researchers, but also as people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Participants enjoy a coffee break at the Capillary Critical Geography Network conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


Nestled at the intersection of the region\u2019s most two important waterways, the two-day conference burbled with conversation as the future of critical geography shared their knowledge and swapped contact information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese amazing emerging scholars are doing research and engaging with questions that are the key issues of our time,\u201d said Ridgley, recounting how the idea to create the Capillary Network developed from conversations between herself, Hugill, and fellow geographers from Concordia, McGill, Queen\u2019s, Trent, University of Ottawa, l\u2019Institut national de la recherche scientifique, and the University of Vermont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSmall critical geography conferences were really positive community-building experiences for us as students and helped us find support for the work we were doing,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the network and this conference, we wanted to reproduce that experience for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Members of the Capillary Critical Geography Network, from left to right: Roger Picton (Trent University), Ted Rutland (Concordia University), David Hugill (Carleton University), Jennifer Ridgley (Carleton University), and Nathan McClintock (Institut national de la recherche scientifique). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a result of this philosophy, and unlike most other academic conferences, the Capillary Network conference was free to attend and aimed specifically towards scholars who live within relative regional proximity to each other \u2013 all in an effort to build connections that can be maintained more practically and sustainably over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s something peculiar about people studying issues around the environment and climate change jumping on planes and flying thousands of kilometres to present at these big national and international academic conferences each year. Regional conferences like ours give us a way to still enjoy the unique opportunities that face-to-face interactions offer but with a much lower ecological impact, so that relationships can develop with integrity and authenticity.\u201d<\/p>Jennifer Ridgley, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As for the future, the Capillary Network plans on debriefing with conference attendees before getting started on planning next year\u2019s gathering, which they tentatively hope to hold in Montr\u00e9al. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have so much gratitude for all the labour that went into putting this first conference together and all the support that we received,\u201d said Ridgley. \u201cIt\u2019s really heartening affirmation that we can do academia differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies<\/a> at Carleton University. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story by Alyssa Tremblay Photos by Ainslie Coghill Just a stone\u2019s throw away from where the scenic Rideau Canal meets the thundering Ottawa River, members of the Capillary Critical Geography Network gathered at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre on May 25-26, 2023, to talk about climate knowledge, gentrification, migration and more. The network\u2019s inaugural conference saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45618,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45581\/revisions\/45618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}