We come together on the last Wednesday of each month at 1 PM EST (10 AM West Coast) to check in with other ESJP friends. This online video meeting is an open space to talk about anything any ESJP member would like to bring to the group.

We meet on the video platform Jitsi which you can use through your browser, desktop app, or mobile app:

new people are always welcome to join

This year, several ESJP communities hosted “critical conversation” retreats. We will come together in an online conference on October 6th from 10AM-4PM Eastern Time.

ESJP Critical Conversations Retreats of 2023

September 2 ~ São José dos Campos, Brazil: The Citizenship and Social Technologies Lab (Aeronautics Tech Institute) in São José dos Campos, Brazil, is hosting an ESJP meeting with our working-class schools’ partnerships. We will exchange ideas about our engaged projects, social justice and what we want to enable to flourish by working with people in vulnerability. We gather in a beautiful green park, share food, have something artful/cheerful conversations, and celebrate our coming together.
Get in touch with john.kleba@gp.ita.br if you have questions.

April 24 ~ University of San Diego (USD): Two classes combined to host a critical conversation retreat on issues related to ESJP. The two classes were ‘Engineering and social justice,‘ an upper-level class, and an entry-level ‘user-centered design‘ class. Using the open space technology approach where participants set their own topics and agenda, the students discussed issues of poverty, homelessness and redlining in San Diego, waste and food justice, lithium mining, and more. The Engineering Exchange for social justice provided food and hosted the event.

June 3/4 ~ Northern California, San Francisco: Jerry McCann and Leon Santen facilitated a two-day retreat in a beautifully art-filled house that used to belong to Jerry’s uncle and his wife. Food and drinks were provided for around 10 people, and the theme was developed collaboratively among those attending in advance of the weekend. Reach out to us if you are curious about future meet-ups. Please send an email of interest to leon@esjp.org.

June 20/21st ~ New York State, Catskills: Sarah Brownell and Caroline Baillie hosted a nature-based critical conversations retreat at Caroline’s place (Calla Munda) in the Catskill mountains on the theme of ‘Engineering and Care for our community.’ Please send expressions of interest (a few words explaining why you’d like to join) to secretary@esjp.org by April 15th. The cost will be just to cover food and supplies. There will be space for up to 4 tents. It will be one of this year’s critical conversations as well as their usual retreat.

July 11th ~ Michigan, Ann Arbor: Joey Valley, Corey Bowen, and Bogdan Vitoc organized a nature-based kayaking retreat together. You are welcome to email Joey (joeymv01@gmail.com) for more info or future meet ups.

~~~~ In general, if you have questions, feel free to email secretary@esjp.org. ~~~~~

How can I explore the option to host?

We invite you to let us know through the survey below. You are welcome to give your meet-up any shape you like. If you’re unsure about hosting and would like to explore this option with us, the same survey is also for you. More info is on the posters below.

Español e English
~ cartel para los que quieren ser anfitriones ~
~ flyer for those who want to host ~

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We have two great events coming up this summer!

ESJP conference – one day, June 13th, online. Free to all. Details and registration coming soon – clear your calendars and save the date!

ESJP Critical Conversions retreat June 4th/5th  – expressions of interest welcome now!
Theme of conversation 2022 – Engineering for ‘whole health’ (planet and people)*
Limited to 15 people in-person  – nature based outdoor retreat
Who is it for? Anyone interested in the theme – as many disciplines as possible please!
Location: Cala Munda Hankins, NY (near the Catskill mountains)
Hosts: Caroline Baillie and Eric Feinblatt
Dates 4th/5th June
One day hiking in the Catskills – a ‘walk shop’ One day outdoors in the forest at Cala Munda
Accommodation  – due to covid we will not be offering any accommodation but we welcome you to camp on our land or stay at a local AirBnB/Guest house. (Book early as its popular in the summer). 
Transport  – Hankins is located 2/12 hours NW of NY city  – self drive from Binghamton or NY airports or train from NY + shared rides from station one hour away. 

* The theme has emerged from work that my team is currently doing for my new online masters program to be launched in May MESH – MS in Engineering for Sustainability and Health** which is explicitly transdisciplinary and founded in social and environmental justice  (spread the word!). In attempting to bring together disparate disciplines and ways of being from a foundation of justice – to solve contemporary and urgent challenges – we find ourselves in need of new ways of communicating and exchanging knowledge. It is challenging and exciting to work out how to ‘knowledge build’ with faculty and students from multiple disciplines and what has emerged are more questions than answers about: how we bring a public health perspective to engineering – and look after our ‘whole health’?; what does planetary health look like from an engineering systems perspective?; how does engineering and urban development affect the emergence of pandemics? How can we bring social ecologists, ecosystems and climate change experts as well as public health professionals and peace and justice activists into the same space as engineers and co-design alternative practices? This retreat will enable us to have conversations about these complex issues, whilst being inspired and influenced by the trees and beauty of nature. 

$150 registration fee – includes all meals.
(Accommodation costs extra – self organized in local Airbnb and guest houses.)
To ensure equity of access to this event, please  contact us if you need financial support for the registration fee as we may be able to find funds to cover this and/or limited travel costs.

Enquire about camping on our land if you prefer.

**See more at https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/masters-engineering-sustainability-health/classes/

If you are interested in joining us at the retreat – please email cbaillie@sandiego.edu with a short explanation of why you would like to attend.

New Meeting Platform

Several members of the ESJP Heartspace have suggested making the switch from hosting the monthly meetings on Zoom to using Jitsi. There are a couple reasons to do this. Firstly, it will enable folks to join from anywhere around the world (some countries have limited or restricted access to Zoom). Secondly, the free and open source nature of Jitsi appeals to the ideals of the ESJP group.

Joining a meeting on Jitsi requires NO account, payment, or sign up. The basic idea is we all visit the same url and are automatically brought together in the same meeting. The fastest way to join a meeting is to open a browser and simply click the link supplied by the meeting host and enter the password if one is required. Another way to join via browser is to visit the Jitsi homepage, click the button reading “See it in Action! Start a Meeting”, and enter the meeting title supplied by the meeting host, and again enter a password if required. Mobile and desktop apps are available but not required to access a meeting.

If using an unfamiliar platform raises any questions or concerns, this video demonstrates joining a meeting using different devices and methods. It also points out several useful features of the new platform.

Meeting Times for 2022

To determine the best times to meet this year, a survey was sent around on the ESJP Heartspace Discord. The consensus was to meet on the last Thursday of each month, and to alternate between two time slots to accommodate as many time zones as possible.

Therefore the following times were selected and divided between months as follows:

January, March, May, July, September, November: 10:00AM-12:00PM US Pacific / 1:00-3:00PM US Eastern / 6:00PM-8:00PM UK.

February, April, June, August, October, December: 8:30AM-10:30AM India / 1:00PM-3:00PM E. Australia / 7:00PM-9:00PM US Pacific / 10:00PM-12:00AM US Eastern.

January 2022 Meeting Info

Based on the outcomes of the survey above, the first ESJP Heartspace Meetup of 2022 will be on January 27th at 1pm US Eastern.

To join the meeting, visit this url: https://meet.jit.si/ESJPMonthlyMeeting or go to jitsi.org, click the button reading “See it in Action! Start a Meeting”, and enter ESJPMonthlyMeeting

If prompted for a password, enter heart

ESJP conference June 13th – We are delighted to announce our next annual ESJP conference. This will be held online to ensure as much participation as possible and in an open space format which enables the participants to co-create the agenda. As such we are not asking for papers just your wonderful selves to show up on the day. It is going to be just one day – to relieve the zoom aches – and there will be no fee. More information and registration details will come in the new year.

ESJP local face to face meets – We have also decided that local face to face local meet-ups would be a great addition to the annual conference this coming year. So if you would like to meet with like minded folk in your geographical region we are going to invite you, through our discord channel, to offer to host one or join one. This could be as simple as meeting for a walk, a chat on the terrace of a cafe, or having a picnic (or any other safe way of hanging out together). Watch this space for further details!

ESJP Critical Conversations retreat  June 4th/5th- We will be running an ESJP Critical Conversations nature based retreat on June 4th and 5th. This style of retreat has been offered in the past and is held at our place near the Catskills – Cala Munda. This year we will be inviting up to 15 people to join us in discussion whilst engaged in forest based activities or sitting around the fire. This year the event will run for two days and we will be including a ‘walk shop’ hike across the Catskills. Details and theme will be forthcoming.