AGG 2008 - Demilitarizing War and Peace, Boston, April 15th-19th

"Demilitarizing War and Peace"

Boston, April 15-19, 2008

activist geographers grouping

Our memories are militarized when we remember this year as the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. Yet we often forget that the peace that preceded this war is a history of sanctions and imperialism, and that militarization continues even in places where 'peace has broken out.' These memories and forgettings profoundly shape how we can imagine common peaceful futures.

Here in Boston – which prepares for Patriot's Day celebrations – we are interested in renewing a conversation about collective practices that construct, in Said's words, "fields of coexistence rather than fields of battle." Since 2006, agg has been creating spaces for building a community-in-formation that engages questions of militarism, daily life, and daily death. How might collective intellectual labor work to demilitarize war and peace (and ourselves in the process)? What can activist-academics do to create possibilities for peaceful commons?

agg lunch/meeting WEDNESDAY 4/16 11:55-12:55pm
The OtherSide Cafe 407 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02115
Take the subway from Copley Sq to Hynes Convention
Center/ICA station or walk 0.5 miles (between E Charlesgate &
Massachusetts Ave) Come share/shape the future of the agg!

What's Just? Mapping the State of Geographies of Justice
FRIDAY 4/18 8:00-9:40am PAPER SESSION 4163
FRIDAY 4/18 10:10-11:40am PARTICIPATORY WORKSHOP
Come network the connections in our work. Local activists
also invited. Central Library, 700 Boylston Street, Copley
Square. 3 minute walk: North on Ring Rd, Rt on Boylston

What's Activist? The next generation talks praxis
FRIDAY 4/18 2:30-4:10pm Panel session 4404

agg party! FRIDAY 4/18 9pm Peoples Republik, Central Square, 876-878
Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
Take the Red Line to Central Square Station, then walk 0.3
miles along Massachusetts Ave