The workshop held on May 13, 2025 Disrupt, reclaim, transform! Cripping and queering environmentalism was the continuation of the Arts-Research Experience of the previous day, where we started reimagining and refiguring environmentalism from the perspective of people with disability (cripping) and queer people (queering). At the event, we brought together individuals and groups engaged with questions related to environmental and climate change from disability and queer perspectives.
The group of participants was highly interdisciplinary, including local and international researchers in the social sciences and humanities, students, and artists. We continued the conversations by critically engaging with how cripping and queering can open up new ways of thinking and acting in environmental contexts.
We asked ourselves:
- How can we disrupt and challenge different forms of oppression — ableism, cisheteronormativity, racism, colonialism — to queer and crip environmental research and policies?
- How can we reclaim and celebrate intersectional community knowledge and creativity, cultivating solidarity and coalitions?
- How can we transform the current state by amplifying the unique contributions of disabled and queer individuals, communities, and organizations?
To explore these questions, we began by summarizing insights from the Arts-Research Experience of the previous day. We then moved to a ‘speed dating’ format, creating space for participants to meet and share their visions of environmentalism.
Building on these exchanges, we continued the discussion in small groups to further develop insights and explore new research pathways. Some of the key topics explored in the small groups included:
- The ways in which science is practiced
- The role of the state
- The necessity of positionality: neutrality is not possible
- Crip and queer temporalities as critiques of monumental and capitalist time
- Spoon theory, which highlights that not everyone has the same amount of energy or resources
- Imagining alternatives to capitalism
- Solidarity and trust, care and sensitivity
The workshop provided us with a space of contact and resonance — based on shared meanings and concerns. Through open dialogue and collective reflection, we were able to engage with complex and urgent questions at the intersection of environmental, disability, and queer perspectives. New connections between people from different fields laid the groundwork for future collaborations. It carried a sense of hope — for change, for solidarity, and for new ways of thinking and acting. We look forward to what we will continue building together.
This event was co-organized by three projects at the University of Helsinki: Overcoming Barriers to Democratic Participation with Minoritized and Marginalized Groups (OBaMa); Resilient and Just Systems (RESET); and Whose sustainability? Understanding and redefining just sustainability transformations through disability and queer perspectives (WEIRD).
This article was written by research assistant of the WEIRD project Sasha Krikkerik.