Biomigrations: Food Sovereignty, Security, and Justice in the Americas

“Biomigrations,” as Jesús Nazario defines it, is a way to reconsider notions of Life and Movement. It is a way to explore one’s community, self, and spirit(s) through violence, refusal, and Indigenous rooting. In other words, Biomigrations is premised on the idea that humans need to know how we are enacting structural pain(s) to humans and non-humans through our Being (violence), how we have arrived at such becoming (refusal), and where we have come from (Indigenous rooting). 

The conference’s main goal will be to collaboratively connect American scholars, community members, and artists through the lenses of Food Sovereignty, Food Security, and Food Justice. We welcome all proposals with specific focus on Indigenous and Black knowledge, people, and lands.

Questions for discussion at the Biomigrations conference may include: 

• How has access to nutritious and fresh foods changed throughout migrations in North, Central, and South America? 
• How has Black and Indigenous ownership of farmland shifted across generations in the Americas? 
• How are women and queer people shaping food justice movements across the American continents?

This conference is organized by the Berkeley Food Institute Graduate Council. Cosponsored by: Multicultural Community Center, Native American Studies Department, Othering and Belonging Institute, Latinx Research Center, and Center for Latin American Studies

The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley brings together researchers, organizers, stakeholders, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change. We are a diverse and vibrant hub generating work centered on realizing a world where all people belong, where belonging entails being respected at a level that includes the right to both contribute and make demands upon society and political and cultural institutions.

The Othering and Belonging Institute responds to issues that require both immediate action and long-term strategy. The Institute engages in innovative communications, arts and cultural strategy, and strategic narrative work that attempts to re-frame the public discourse from a dominant narrative of control and fear towards one that recognizes the humanity of all people, cares for the earth, and celebrates our inherent interconnectedness.