Soils: The Living Fabric of Health, 2020 Urban Soils Symposium will be a series of virtual events held every Friday and Saturday in October.
Hosted by NYC Urban Soils Institute, RUDN University & TreePeople
Soils:
The Living Fabric of Health
Soils are the greatest connectors of our Ecosystem. A superorganism of the biosphere. An immune system for our Earth, of our health. The living fabric that is always developing, always life-giving. Steadfast and powerful, as a resource, as our foundation for life. The support system of our infrastructure. Our investment. Soils are the foundation of diversity. Yours to discover!
The format of the symposium is interdisciplinary and very interactive, with time and priorities aimed at full audience/speaker/participant discussion, deliberations, development of hypothesis, methods, and ideas, leading to solutions and implementation through collaborations.
In order to realize our goals of interactivity and sense of place, we will be using the video conference platform: Gather. Gather allows conference participants to interact with one another in a custom 2-D world where interactions can be as spontaneous as at an in-person conference. Zoom is integrated into this platform, and will still be the primary platform for presentations, but all other conference sessions such as breakout rooms and discussions will take place using your virtual character. We invite you to take a look and explore the possibilities for yourself!
Register As An Attendee
Registration is mandatory. Our registration portal is NOW OPEN!
Fee: We like to make it accessible to all, and so we are offering it for free. Although this symposium is made possible and in part supported by NYC Soil & Water Conservation District, it takes a lot of time and teamwork to put it together and we cannot cover all of the costs. We greatly appreciate your donations for these events, big and small! Thank you!!
Registering on Eventbrite: Please register for each event individually at the link below. Check the calendar to make sure you're registering for your desired event day. Once you register, Eventbrite will send you an online page that contains the Zoom and Gather links as we move closer to the event. Eventbrite typically sends these emails 24 hours, 2 hours and 10 minutes before the start of the event you have registered for.
Looking forward to seeing you all!
Event Schedule
Select the Drop-down Links Below To Learn More!
▼ Symposium Sessions & Discussions (October Fridays, 2-5pm - EST)
Sessions: Live & Recorded 2-5 pm (EST)
Format
2-3pm: Talks + Q&A
3-3:30pm: Coffee Hour Chat/Poster & Art Sessions/Entertainment
3:15-5pm: Breakout Sessions with Discussions
Day 1 Session
*Soils; the Living Fabric of Health- Friday, October 2nd
Discussions on the session topics and themes with special guests.*
Day 2 Session
*Rights of Soils- Friday, October 9th
“Soils for all, and all for soils” - the past, the present, the future. Let the soils speak.
This session will explore our fundamental human rights to our common resources, the inherent rights of our resources, and our knowledge gaps. *
Day 3 Session
Symbiogenesis - Friday, October 16th
Our planet; a holistic system of parts. Soils, the foundation of diversity. “The nature of Nature.” “Cooperation, not Competition.” “Becoming by living together.”
This session will explore the fabric that evolved and sustains life, and the role of soils in facilitating evolutionary change.
Day 4 Session
Gut Instinct - Friday, October 23rd
Microcosmos: the wellspring of evolutionary change
This session will explore the heterogeneity, similarities, causes, and effects of the soil/root microbiome and the human gut microbiome, and the effect of their relationships on the environment and human health.
Day 5 Session
Gardenator 3: The Rise of Engineered Soils - Friday, October 30th
Does it take hundreds and thousands of years for soils to develop? Back to the future: Are engineered soils (re)building soils? What’s in your garden? This session will explore the creation, usage and philosophy behind engineered soils.
Day 6 Session
Symposium Day 2: Saturday, October 31st
Roundtable kick-offs, and special guest workshop
▼ Soil & art Workshops, Performances, Exhibits & Entertainment (October Saturdays, 2-4pm EST)
*The air we breath, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the waste we produce or reuse, the water we use to survive: As we explore the living fabric of health; soils as the supporters and connectors of our fundamental living needs, we can make some deeper connections to some of the facets of our lifestyles that are impacted by the choices we make with our soils resources, and the impacts we have on our environment, both good and bad.
To make up for not being able to host our outdoor art and soils festival, tour, and expo, we are incorporating interactive workshops, entertainment, performances, and exhibits that will be intertwined into the format of symposium. Artists, scientists, urban farmers, educators, landscape architects, architects, and practitioners from diverse sectors will share their explorations, engage the public with demonstrations or interactive activities, and provoke and probe new ideas. *
▼ Roundtables & working Group Meetings
The follow-up roundtables are geared towards deliberations, development of hypotheses, methods, ideas, solutions, and implementation through collaborations on specific issues brought up during the session discussions. Some roundtables develop into working groups or committees who take on an action plan for implementation.
Roundtables Dates & Times
Kickoff on Symposium Day 2: Saturday, October 31st at 2PM Followup meetings scheduled starting November, 2020. Times TBD.
Soils: The Living Fabric of Health runs from October 2nd to October 31st. To learn more about each event, click a date.
To see Past Events, navigate to the Calendar Page
Open Call
We are inviting all to participate in an open platform of holistic collaboration among a variety of sectors, disciplines, backgrounds, and cultures.
We invite you to share your research, personal explorations, stories, skills or discoveries about soils.
What Calls are available?
Open Call submissions for Live Talks now are closed.
Open call is still open for:
Pre-recorded presentation
Pre-recorded workshop
Entertainment/art/exhibits/poster (live & recorded)
USI magazine entry
Please also send us your poster and other resources you would like to share. (yes, we can display your poster with fantastic clarity using out video conference platform: Gather),
Become part of the USI family with your generous donation!
This year, our symposium is being made available to you free-of-charge thanks in part to the support from the NYC Soil and Water Conservation District and donors like you. Help us expand our city’s understanding of our soils through our symposium, education, research and soils testing and consultation. Your donation goes directly to supporting the work of USI.
Your donations support soil testing, research, and education, onsite assistance, the annual urban soils symposium, programming, workshops, community support, and the building of resources in response to the needs and demands of the people and a sustainable future.
As NYC Urban Soils Institute is a part of the NYC Soil and Water Conservation District, your donation may be tax-deductible under 170(c)(1). Click here to learn more about our tax-deductibility status.
Donations
What is the USI?
USI is a one of a kind open global platform with soils at the center, creating opportunities for all backgrounds and disciplines, all ages, and every walk of life, to have access to everything soils. “Soils for all, and all for soils.”
For the people, by the people, without barriers or boundaries, the USI is a holistic access point to education, exposure, experiences, research, resources, people, collaborations, connections, and relationship building, uniting in soils.
Urban Soils Institute, NYC (USI) was conceptualized in 2014 and founded in 2015 by a partnership between NYC Soil & Water Conservation District, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, City University of NY, and the Gaia Institute.
The annual symposium has become the heart and product of our mission, bringing together people of different backgrounds, philosophies, disciplines, and cultures, to stitch together efforts, challenge today for tomorrow, and to unite and strengthen our mutual goal: To make things better, to be better, to have a healthier us and planet.
The symposium seeds discussion, thought, and collaboration. It is the platform and springboard to stimulate work and cross-disciplinary relationships that function beyond the symposia, to keep the work and conversations going. From idea to implementation.
Too often we explore and look at things in categories. For our discussions in the symposium, we hope to always keep things in context and offer the big picture; the full connectivity of the parts of the environment that we explore. Soils naturally connect and unite all the pieces, and are the foundation of diversity.
What really separates USI symposia from other conferences is the shifting of focus from purely academic topics about the properties of soils into a more unified perspective on how humans and soils interact.
This year, our symposium is going virtual. During these difficult times, let’s defy the odds, come together, and in this gain strength from each other.
We look forward to having you join us in the discussions about the often-hidden but critical resource of our city: our urban soils.
Soils Unite,
Soils are our common language
Soils; our common culture
Soils; our common resource
What is the Goal of the Symposia?
Privacy Statement
When you submit your proposal, you agree to allow NYC Urban Soils Institute (USI) & NYC Soil & Water Conservation District to feature your video/presentation/submitted work on the USI website (urbansoils.org) and USI YouTube channel, and live stream your video/presentation/submitted work if presenting live, unless explicitly requested otherwise. Full authorship credits will be attributed to the presenter and any other entities associated with the creation of the video/presentation/submitted work at the presenter’s behest. Any copyrighted content, including images, audio and quotes, featured in the video/presentation/submitted work are not claimed as property of the NYC Urban Soils Institute. It is the author’s responsibility to properly source, provide credit, and obtain permission for all necessary content of their work. All symposium events, including discussions, workshops and breakout rooms will be held on Zoom and will be recorded using the program’s features. By joining the event, you are providing permission to the NYC Urban Soils Institute (USI) & NYC Soil & Water Conservation District to use photo, video and/or audio content that may include you in our archives, YouTube channel and other promotional materials. If you do not wish to be included, you have the option to turn off your video and microphone input.
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