TRACX Symposium Call for Proposals: What’s Left? Confronting the Alt-Right

The Toronto Research and Action Community Exchange (TRACX) Collective runs a two part program originally started by Opirg Toronto to build space for student and community research on social and environmental justice issues. The first component is a research portion. Through this research we work to facilitate connections between campus resources and community organizations working for social change. Through the TRACX program, community organizations can develop research projects useful to their campaigns and long-term strategies while being matched with students interested in completing the research for credit.

This year’s symposium is tentatively titled “What’s Left? Coalition-Building and Countering the Alt-Right” and will be co-hosted by the Toronto Research and Action Community Exchange collective along with Opirg Toronto and Sba Centre. The symposium portion is organized to showcase research with a community organizing focus from students, non-students and community groups. We want to problematize and challenge perspectives on research, and build networks between socially-conscious students and grassroots community organizations to develop research proposals led by the community group’s needs and priorities. We hope you can join us in helping facilitate this process as we focus on how we resist fascism, racism and oppression in our relationships, in our workplaces, and in the institutions and systems that govern our daily lives.

This year’s symposium will include both a skills-based component for developing the practical tools for conducting and disseminating research, and a thematic set of panels, keynotes, group discussions and presentations on anti-fascist work in Toronto and its intersections with other movements. This symposium is motivated by a need to reflect on our understanding of anti-fascism in the era of Trump and what the practice of anti-fascist organizing looks like. How do we cultivate an understanding of what anti-fascism means, and how do we employ it in our organizing work? We will explore how it intersects with other movements (like anti-racist organizing, migrant justice work, trans rights, and disability justice work) and what the antifascist organizing of the future might look like. Students attending the symposium will be exposed to a variety of social and environmental justice causes in the city of Toronto and will be able to network with community organizations about their research interests in the areas that the community groups work in. Students and community members will also have an opportunity to learn more about issues in the communities surrounding the campus and learn how the resources of the University could be utilized to assist with community projects.

 

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a TRACX session as part of this years program schedule we will be soliciting submissions starting 12am June 1st 2017 until 11:59 pm August 1st 2017. This year we are searching for applications centred around discussion based sessions. These sessions can be in the form of panels, keynotes, literary/movie reviews, group discussion spaces or other creative proposals that foster dialogue amongst and actively engage attendees in the source material. To submit a proposal please fill out the google form or email: opirg.tracx@gmail.com.Please note that we will strive to offer every facilitator an honoraria for their time and effort.If you would like to become an official TRACX volunteer please fill out our registration form here. All new volunteers are asked to attend an Anti-Oppression 101 training in August and so we ask that you submit your interest to volunteer no later than August 1st 2017. If you have volunteered with TRACX, OPIRG (Toronto or York) or SBA Students for Barrier-Free Access you may register as a volunteer no later than September 1st 2017. If you have any further questions, concerns, or would like more information please feel free to reach out via emailing racheleopirgto@gmail.com.