Catalina Island and Coastal Traffic

We invite all interested conference attendees to apply for the pre-conference excursion to the Wrigley Institute on Catalina Island, offshore from Los Angeles, from Nov. 10-11, 2026, on the topic of the blue humanities. The blue humanities describes an interdisciplinary area of research that studies the evolving history and complex relationships between human societies and aquarian ecologies, ranging from rivers and rains to ocean systems and glacial formations. This interdisciplinary retreat will include a series of workshops and field exercises, as well as presentations from researchers who are currently doing work at the Wrigley Marine Science Institute. Our goal is to spark further collaborations and develop models for field work and site-specific teaching. We expect topics to include riparian and coastal ecosystems, hydrology, Indigenous and decolonial epistemologies, marine history and cultures, and the relation between the hydrosphere and climate futures. The retreat will be followed by a roundtable at the NASSR/NASVA conference to share some of what we have learned and ongoing questions raised by the retreat.

We are still finalizing program details, including institutional support. We expect that there will be a fee associated with participation, which will help pay for transportation, as well as room and board. We will depart the morning of Nov. 10 from San Pedro and return in the early evening on Nov. 11.

We are eager to include as many scholars as possible in these workshops, from the widest variety of fields and stages of research and teaching. If you are interested, please email the organizers, Padma Rangarajan (padmar@ucr.edu) and Devin Griffiths (devin.griffiths@usc.edu) directly, including a brief C.V. as well as a brief description of your interests and how your research, teaching, and other practices might intersect with the blue humanities.