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Greenways: The Interconnected Pathways of Communication and the Environment
A NEXUS Interdisciplinary Conference

University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Thursday, March 6- Saturday, March 8, 2014
Web: http://web.utk.edu/~nexus
Plenary Speakers:

• Sandra Alcosser (San Diego State University)
• Mark Pedelty (University of Minnesota)
• Jennifer Peeples (Utah State University)

Following the natural contours of the landscape, greenways are man-made paths that work to link human communities to the surrounding environment. In the same way, this conference seeks to promote connectivity between various disciplines and their approaches to the environment. Recent conversations about environmental issues illustrate society's rising concerns for the future of humanity and the planet. Communication about such issues takes many forms: public debates, government policies, scientific research, film and media, poetry and prose, and classroom education. Such a wide range of communicative mediums demonstrates the truly interdisciplinary nature of research seeking to generate social and environmental change. Moreover, if we expand our conceptualization of the environment then we can begin to talk more fluidly across disciplines to understand how multiple environments impact communication practices.

This conference aims to bring together scholars, creative writers, and educators from a broad range of disciplines in order to provide a space to share the myriad ways that humans communicate about an endangered environment and recommend avenues for future research. This conference also seeks to expand the ways in which scholars link discussions about communication and the environment such that the natural world becomes one environment among many which shapes our ideas about communication.

As an interdisciplinary conference, we welcome submissions from all relevant fields and disciplines. Abstracts (250-300 words) are invited on a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, the following:

• Environment and narrative
• "Natural" and "unnatural" narratives
• Animal studies
• Role of the environment in identity formation
• Influence of cultural environments on communicative practices
• Dissemination of environmental narratives
• Ecodiscourses, such as ecocriticism, ecofeminism, ecotourism ecomusicology, ecocomposition
• Regional narratives and the environment
• Race and the environment
• Environmental law
• Food justice and food sustainability
• Contemporary environmental issues, to include but not limited to climate change, hydraulic fracturing, mountaintop removal, Keystone XL
• Creative submissions of all genres and media will also be considered

Individual papers or panel proposals will be considered. This interdisciplinary conference allows for many more spaces for discussion than described. Please consider submitting proposals which may not fit neatly into the ones listed above.

Please submit abstracts to utnexus2014@gmail.com - notice: the deadline has been extended to January 31, 2014.