Call for Proposals: Symposium on Climate Action in the Great Lakes Region
Deadline: September 30, 2022
To commemorate its 30th anniversary, the Buffalo Environmental Law Journal (BELJ) will be hosting an in-person symposium event (with a virtual participation option) in the spring of 2023, titled, “Climate Action in the Great Lakes Region.” The symposium will take place in late-February or early March in Buffalo, New York. Further details, including event date, will be announced soon. The symposium print issue will be published in June 2023.
Although the symposium will focus on the Great Lakes Basin, the climate issues faced by the region are representative of what is happening in watersheds across the nation and around the world. Rising waters and extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change are causing increased flooding, coastal erosion, property damage, and are endangering the health and safety of humans, wildlife, and the natural environment.
This symposium seeks to provide an opportunity for examination and shared learning concerning current efforts across the Great Lakes Region to address the realities of a changing climate. Proposal topics may include, but are not limited to:
- How mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency efforts at the municipal, state, federal and international levels can prepare our coastlines for climate change
- Recent efforts to expand environmental rights and the rights of nature
- Population migration: will the Great Lakes area become a climate refuge?
- Climate justice actions: ensuring a more equitable future
- Laws, policies, and regulations to combat invasive species
- How to address toxicity, harmful algal blooms, and dead zones in the Great Lakes. What actions are needed to reduce contamination from excess nutrients, mercury, PCBs, and PFAS?
- Environmental conflict resolution (ECR) processes and other collaborative efforts in the Great Lakes Basin
- Climate actions in the technology, industrial, and agricultural sectors (including transitions to cleaner renewable energy sources, building climate-resilient infrastructure, and emission-reduction efforts)
BELJ welcomes proposals from academics, legal practitioners, policymakers, legal researchers, and law students. Submitted work must be original and previously unpublished, and should demonstrate quality writing and sound legal analysis, with proper Bluebook citations. Based on these submissions, the BELJ Editorial Board will invite speakers to present their papers at the symposium. All accepted papers will have the opportunity to be published in the Buffalo Environmental Law Journal.
Proposals can be submitted through Scholastica (preferred method) or via email to law-belj@buffalo.edu (with subject heading “Symposium Proposal”) and will be considered on a rolling basis. Proposals should include a working title and an abstract for the prospective written piece, a cover letter including the estimated length of the piece, and a CV or resume. The deadline to submit proposals is September 30, 2022. First drafts will be due early February 2023, with revised drafts due mid-April 2023.
Any questions may be directed to Kristen Cascio, Editor-in-Chief of the Buffalo Environmental Law Journal, at law-belj@buffalo.edu. We look forward to reading your proposals!