Critical Conservation Assembly: Communities of Practice.

What if conservation is not primarily about preserving objects — but about sustaining relationships, stories, rituals, memories, and communities?

The first Critical Conservation Assembly invites scholars, artists, Indigenous custodians, conservators, activists, craftspeople, curators, community workers, and practitioners across disciplines to rethink conservation as a relational, pluricultural, and political practice.

We are especially interested in contributions that challenge dominant object-centered paradigms and the dominance of Western conservation's authenticism and scientism and explore how cultural continuity is maintained through care, renewal, transmission, repetition, performance, storytelling, and collective practice.

Topics may include:
- Conservation ontologies
- Community-led and Indigenous conservation practices
- Reenactment, renewal, and conservation through transformation
- Repatriation, decoloniality, and shared custodianship
- Embodied knowledge and intergenerational transmission
- Maintenance, care, and everyday conservation
- Natureculture and more-than-human heritage
- Digital communities, gaming, online archives, and networked stewardship

Formats include:
- 15–20 minute presentations
- Duet talks
- Storytelling and oral formats
- Audio-visual submissions
- “One-slide” interventions (5 min)

We strongly encourage submissions from non-academic practitioners and members of historically marginalized communities.

Submit a 300-word abstract + short bio (max. 200 words) or contact us for other modes of submission by June 30, 2026, to:
centerforcriticalconservationgmail.com

Selected contributions may be considered for publication.

To learn more about the research project behind the organization, visit the website: https://centerforcriticalconservation.com/.