Gathering in Relationship: Early Career Convenings for Human, Animal, and Ecosystem Health

I am interested in the relational transformation that happens in contexts where young people are gathering within spaces informed by a commitment to relational well-being and are working on issues of eco-social health equity. This will include how diverse epistemic knowledge and values are engaged with, and the specificity of how contexts and places inform this relational transformation. I am curious about how this is happening in both hyperlocal contexts and international/transnational contexts (where people are gathering from across countries and where what works in one context may not work in another).

Research Phases

Phase 1

Mapping the Relational Turn: A Scoping Review of Youth-Led Convening Models for Eco-Social Health Equity

We are looking at how youth are convening internationally to work on issues of eco-social health, what values and knowledges shape these spaces, and relationally what youth are expressing wanting from these convening spaces.

Phase 2

Gathering in Relationship: The Role of Immersive Field Experiences in Relational Transformation

We are interested in the relational transformation that happens in contexts where youth and early career individuals (university students) are gathering within spaces informed by a commitment to relational well-being and are working on issues of eco-social health equity. This will include how diverse epistemic knowledge and values are engaged with, and the specificity of how contexts and places inform this relational transformation. We will look at how participants articulate and experience relational values, how diverse ways of knowing are engaged with, and how relationships to self, each other, and the more-than-human world are experienced.

Students taking one of the five CoPEH-Canada Summer Field Courses will be invited to share their daily reflections (indicated below). This part of the study will be both English and French.

Phase 3

Beyond Borders, Towards Being Together: Mapping Relational Transformations and Diverse Ways of Knowing and Being in Global Youth Convenings

I will be conducting interviews with Youth Conveners around the world to answer the following key questions:

How do youth participants articulate and experience relational values and relationships to self, each other, and the natural world when gathering within spaces informed by a commitment to relational well-being and are working on issues of eco-social health equity?

How are diverse ways of knowing negotiated, integrated, or contested in these youth convening spaces?

How do youth conveners navigate tensions between pragmatic, short-term strategies and relational, ecocentric transformations within these spaces? What transformative possibilities emerge in transnational gatherings that are not necessarily rooted in one context?

How do these relational transformations (relationships, relational values, and diverse knowledges) influence the conceptualization and experience of health and well-being when working in this space?

Stay tuned for a link to the recruitment invitation!

2025

New York

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