Pre-AAG Workshop


Where & When: Sunday, March 23, 2025 • Detroit, MI [location TBA]
Workshop Activities: 1:30pm-6pm CT • Plenary + Iftar: 6-9:30pm CT

This event is organized by Geographers for Justice in Palestine (GJP) and endorsed by Antipode Foundation, Black Geographies Specialty Group, Cultural Geography Specialty Group, Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group, Dimensions of Political Ecology (DOPE), Disability Specialty Group, Energy and Environment Specialty Group, Feminist Geography Specialty Group, Graduate Student Affinity Group, GeoZone, Qualitative Research Specialty Group, Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group, and Socialist and Critical Geography Specialty Group

Why are we organizing this workshop & what are its goals?

We organize this pre-conference workshop amid ongoing genocidal violence in Palestine, the occupation of Palestinian lands and peoples, and Israel’s renewed invasion of Lebanon and Syria. Understanding that the institutions we work for and participate in materially support Israeli war, genocide, settler colonialism, and apartheid, we seek to make a space before the 2025 AAG annual conference to gather and organize within our sector towards an end to these entanglements.

The workshop has three central goals:

to share and strengthen our organizing skills and strategies for our existing Palestine solidarity work and/or to connect folks with other Palestine organizing efforts Geographers are involved in.
to strengthen disciplinary-level Palestine solidarity organizing capacity in Geography, by plugging people into existing organizing work, bringing new people into GJP organizing, and building relationships and political trust with one another.
to broaden how and where geographers understand it is possible to leverage their academic labor in solidarity with Palestine. Palestine solidarity organizing can happen in your classroom, on your campus, in your union, in your department, in your professional association, through collaborative research, and, by using conference spaces as political/labor organizing spaces!

What will the day look like and what will the workshop activities consist of?

The GFP pre-conference workshop will be composed of workshops (1:30-6pm), an evening plenary discussion (~6-7:15), and an Iftar (~7:30-9:30).

Attendees can pick the workshop sessions they feel are most relevant to their current organizing or areas they would like to learn more about. Workshops will pivot around the themes of research, teaching, and labor, which we understand to be three central areas of academic life where Palestine solidarity work can and needs to be incorporated.

Research

This aspect of the workshop will look at how we can best leverage our skills as geographic researchers for the Palestine solidarity movement. It will focus on research that is in response to and in the service of boycott and divestment organizing, broadly conceived (as opposed to general academic research, though the two sometimes overlap). This will include workshops that build skills related to how to do this kind of research, as well as sessions that present existing Palestine solidarity action-oriented research work that is happening in/around geography that people can plug into.

Teaching

This area of programming will look specifically at how to incorporate Palestine into geography and related fields’ syllabi (at various levels and across sub disciplinary foci), including by compiling useful teaching materials. It will also make space to workshop strategies for discussing Palestine with students, and for using classroom space to plug students into movement work.

Labor

This part of the conference will think about how academic workers can leverage various aspects of our labor power in solidarity with Palestinian liberation and work to cut the ties between our workplaces and the Zionist project. This will include but is not limited to union organizing, as we aim to think about various scales of ‘workplace’ Palestine solidarity organizing. Encampments, direct action, BDS, and anti-repression campaigns (across multiple scales), and intellectual labor in and outside of our campus organizing spaces can all be labor organizing.

The evening portion of the workshop (6-9:30pm) will consist of a plenary focused on the newly launched academic boycott and divestment campaign within AAG, where we will discuss and get organized on next steps (for the 2025 conference and beyond). It will be followed by an Iftar that begins at sundown, a space for us to eat together and get to know one another. Halal food and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided, as will space for prayer for those who would like it.

The pre-conference workshop seeks to make a space to discuss and analyze the unique organizing challenges and power that come with our position as academic workers. However, while oriented towards academic workers and organizing work that intersects with the academy, it is not a conference. It will not include conference-style presentations on academic research on Palestine. GJP has however organized several sessions at the actual AAG conference that will feature some of the important recent research work happening around Palestine and BDS in the Geography, you can check those out here.

Who is the workshop for?

If you identify with one or more of the following profiles: You are invited to the pre-conference, there will be workshops that are a good fit for you, and we’d love to organize with you!

Newcomers

You are a geography faculty or graduate student in solidarity with Palestinian liberation who is looking to get involved or more involved in Palestine solidarity work in Geography, to support the AAG BDS push, and/or to build up skills you can apply to local/campus Palestine solidarity work (which could relate to the research, teaching, or labor aspects of your job).

Geographers

You are a geography (or geography-adjacent-AAG-attending) faculty or student who has been deeply involved in Palestine solidarity organizing in the academy/your campus and you are looking for a space to make political assessments and think collectively about what’s next, share or sharpen skills, plug people into something you’re involved in, make connections to related Palestine solidarity organizing work happening in Geography, and/or help lead up the AAG BDS push.

Disciplinary allies

You are not currently employed by an academic institution, or not in a geography department, or do not have a geography training, but you consider geography (broadly conceived) as at least one of your professional/intellectual homes and are invested in or willing to become invested in disciplinary level organizing in solidarity with Palestine.

Where will the workshop be held?

The workshop will be held in a large former-industrial space centrally located in Detroit that is ADA accessible and that can be easily reached via public transport.

COVID-19 and Accessibility Document

How do I attend the workshop?!

The workshop is free and open to anyone who fits the above description. It does require registration and that event organizers approve your registration. We have a limited number of spots due to the capacity of the event space, so please only register if you plan on attending. We will close registration when the spots have been filled. Register using the form linked below:

Will the workshop be hybrid?

We are working on limited hybrid/virtual access. We will have a separate registration for those who prefer this option at a later date.

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