Imagining the Normal in Post-Pandemic Times: Critical Socio-Legal Perspectives

The Socio-Legal Studies program in collaboration with the Socio-Legal Studies Graduate Student Association at York University invites you to join us for the 2022 SLST Symposium on the theme of “Imagining the Normal in Post-Pandemic Times: Critical Socio-Legal Perspectives.”  The symposium will be held virtually via zoom on Thursday, April 28, 2022 via zoom. Full event description and zoom information (pdf.)

RSVP for free |  yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYsfuCoqD8rHN0Qbmvo4t2q9ErnxvcmEYxk

This will mark the fifth annual graduate student symposium.

COVID-19 has raised both individual and collective challenges that have led to social, political, and economic changes. Unfortunately, the virus has also created new and exacerbated existing contemporary disparities, inequities, and discriminations. As such, there is a collective desire to ‘return to normal.’ But, what is ‘normal’? Is this pre-pandemic reality desirable? What did a normal world look like before the pandemic? How can we re-envision the normal in post-pandemic times? What socio-legal issues have withstood the pandemic and are carrying into the post-pandemic era? How can we and have we demonstrated resilience in the face of disparity, inequity, and discrimination? How has the pandemic highlighted questions of nonconformity, deviance and categorization?

We have an incredible list of presenters, coming from a variety of disciplines, lined up to share their work. Join us as we bring together students, researchers and advocates from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to analyze and discuss critical socio-legal perspectives of the “normal” in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For any questions or concerns, please contact slstsymposium2022@gmail.com.

Closing Keynote Address: Dr. Dayna Nadine Scott is a socio-legal scholar and activist who engages with community-based methods in areas of resource extraction, Indigenous resistance and self-governance, and environmental justice, among others. Professor Scott is cross-appointed between the faculty of Environmental Studies & Urban Change and Osgoode Hall Law School. She was appointed as York Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice in the Green Economy in 2018. Her current project examines transitions toward sustainable economies to support Indigenous jurisdiction, laws, and systems of governance.