DOPE 2023

To the DOPE community:

For over a decade, you have brought your energy, support, resources, critiques, and insurgent ideas to our annual conference, and continuing to support over the past few years as we’ve pivoted to virtual formats and expanded beyond the conference itself to other forms of intellectual and creative community, including reading groups, discussion series, a seed exchange, and more. This academic year will again be a shift.

Every year’s organizing collective functions through the volunteer labor of grad students and independent scholars, and this year we have decided to forego a formal conference in favor of a variety of alternative forms of engagement and community building–locally, regionally, and, as always, virtually. While this was not the easiest decision, it is not the end of DOPE. Instead, we’re transitioning to a more flexible and dynamic approach that continues to build our vibrant community while staying within organizers’ capacity. Over the past two years especially, we have been struck by how the DOPE community has shifted to become more academically and geographically accessible, and the engagement from around the world is not something we intend to lose.

This year, we plan to continue our #DopeReads reading group (currently making its way through Anna Tsing’s Mushroom at the End of the World) in addition to organizing distributed workshops, panels, discussion series, our annual seed exchange, and more. You can sign up for the reading group here and follow our Instagram and Twitter for upcoming announcements. And if you have ideas or projects of your own, or just want to get involved or stay involved, reach out!

DOPE is not going anywhere. While the annual conference will likely return in the future, we are excited to imagine and plan what this intellectual community can become, and we invite your continued support, input, critiques, ideas, and especially, collaborations. We hope to remain connected with other political ecology organizations and environmental groups around the world. To stay in the loop, we’re switching to a more casual email listserv format, which you can join here! Those of you already on the DOPE mailing lists will automatically be added to the listserv. And of course, continue to follow us on social media (@dopeuky on Instagram and Twitter). 

In solidarity,

DOPE Organizing Collective