Emergent Strategies: Collectively envisioning Environmental Psychology for the next 50 years

Do Lee (Queens College)
Jen Tang (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Caitlin Cahill (Pratt Institute)
Deshonay Dozier (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Jourdan Sayers (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
David Chapin (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
Jennifer Pipitone (College of Mount Saint Vincent)
Bryce DuBois (Rhode Island School of Design)
Kristen Hackett (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
William Mangold (Drexel University)
Gabrielle Bendiner- Viani (Buscada Studio)

This session will be framed within the historical and sociocultural context of the Environmental Psychology doctoral program at the City University of New York to spark dialogue and to envision the field in our corner of the universe. Inspired by adrienne maree brown's 2017 book Emergent Strategy (and the work of Octavia Butler that inspired brown's book) we invite participants to come to the workshop having read this book to consider how we might collectively "shape change." We echo brown's invitation (2017,1): "Here you are, in the cycle between the past and future, choosing to spend your miraculous time in the exploration of how humans, especially those seeking to grow liberation and justice, can learn from the world around us how to best collaborate, how to shape change." This session is envisioned as a forum for active, interactive and collaborative reflection, imagination, and deliberation. Those interested will be invited in advance of the conference to start an online dialogue, drawing inspiration from Emergent Strategy, to identify issues/quotes/questions for consideration. adrienne maree brown states: “Trust the people... If you trust the people, they become trustworthy. Trust is a seed that grows with attention and space. The facilitator can be a gardener, or the sun, the water” (brown, 2017). With this commitment in mind, we imagine this workshop as a participatory space where participants will be introduced to the elements, tools, and principles of “emergent strategy” through a facilitated reflective praxis and dialogue focused on the history, present, and future of Environmental Psychology. Our goal is to jumpstart a conversation that aims to hold sacred values, pressing issues, and shifting challenges in consideration while envisioning the field of environmental psychology in the next 50 years.