Join us for our annual social ecology gathering in Vermont the weekend of September 26th, 27th, and 28th. The Institute for Social Ecology will be returning to the former campus of Goddard College in Plainfield at the height of fall foliage season to spend time together socializing, hearing presentations, and engaging in political discussion. We'll hear from some excellent social ecology theorists, writers and organizers. See session details below.

Housing and food will be provided through Creative Campus, which will require additional registration here. Dorm rooms can be shared for half off on housing, but food must be purchased separately. We recommend folks self-organize room shares, but if you do not know anyone and want to share a room please fill out this form. We will do our best to pair you up but CANNOT guarantee that we will find a match for you.

Arrival Time: 3pm Friday 9/26 Clean up/ Departure time: 2pm Sunday 9/28 More schedule details to come.

Please reach out to social-ecology@mail.mayfirst.org with any questions.

Schedule:

Friday, September 26

3-5 PM: Arrivals & Registration

5:30-6:30 PM: DINNER

6:30-7 PM: Opening circle

7:15-8:45 PM: Practicing Social Ecology book talk with author Eleanor Finley

9:00 PM: Social time

Saturday, September 27

8:30-9:45 AM: BREAKFAST

10-11:20 AM: Orin Langelle and Anne Petermann, The Global Struggle for Forests: Photography and Stories from International Movements

11:20-11:30 AM: BREAK

11:30 AM-1 PM: Recovering the Utopian Imperative (Brian Tokar, Anja Lind, Max Puchalsky)

1-2 PM: LUNCH

2-3:30 PM: Building Utopia via Community Land Trusts & Intentional Communities (Grace Gershuny, Michelle Eddleman McCormick, Gabe Futterman, Sean Reul)

3:30-5:30 PM: Open time

5:30-7 PM: DINNER

7:00 PM: Social time with music from our collections

Sunday, September 28

9-10:30 AM: BREAKFAST

10:30 AM -12:30 PM: Discussion of social ecology’s role in the present moment

12:30-1:30 PM: LUNCH

2 PM: Cleanup

Session Descriptions:

Practicing Social Ecology with Eleanor Finley
- This interactive discussion/workshop explores what has been collectively learned about the praxis of social ecology over the years. We will begin with a short discussion about Eleanor’s recently published Practicing Social Ecology: From Bookchin to Rojava in Beyond, and then transition into a facilitated conversation about participants’ own experience in the practice of social ecological principles. What have social ecologists found effective or ineffective, surprising or profound? What differences of perspective or approach have occurred between generations? What are the key lessons of the many and varied social movements we’ve engaged in over the years? How do lessons from past experiments bear upon the theory?
Building Utopia via Community Land Trusts & Intentional Communities with Grace Gershuny (Cooperation VT Community Land Trust), Michelle Eddleman McCormick (Cooperation Vermont), Gabe Futterman (Sirius Community, Intentional Communities Network) and Sean Reul (Midcoast Community Land Trust, Maine).
- We will continue a discussion that began during the last ISE mentorship cycle about the role of intentional communities as training grounds for communalist politics and as key nodes in community mutual aid networks. The discussion will emphasize the strategy of community land trusts to re-common the land, develop affordable housing, and provide a basis for cooperative self-governance and engagement with the solidarity economy.
Labor’s Melancholia: Workers in the revolutionary imagination with Jamie McCallum, Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College and author of Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Struggle for Worker Justice.
- This talk will examine the shifting role of workers as a revolutionary force in the left imagination. Over time the left has returned to viewing labor as a revolutionary subject but for different reasons than Marx and Engels. Jamie will present a case for unions as more than workplace agents, through an analysis of their role fighting for public health, education, and against climate change.
Recovering the Utopian Imperative with Brian Tokar (ISE, Central Vermont), Anja Lind (University of Dresden), Max Puchalsky (Solarpunk Surf Club, Lexington, KY)
- The utopian impulse that has long been central to the dynamism of social movements and the development of social ecology often seems difficult to sustain in this time of climate chaos and rising authoritarian politics. We will discuss a wide array of theoretical, historical and aesthetic tendencies that highlight the potential for a renewed utopian sensibility in these difficult times.

2025 Annual Gathering