Presenter(s):
Dan Wildcat, Haskell Indian Nations University
Elena Sparrow, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Jacqualine Schaeffer, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
Robert Turner, Louisiana State Univ
Kristina Peterson, Lowlander Center
Timothy Schneider, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Olga Wilhelmi, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research
Stephanie Willis, Haskell Indian Nations University
B. Kainoa Azama, The Olohana Foundation
Maraya Ben-Joseph, The Olohana Foundation
Julie Maldonado, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network

Primary Convener:
Julie Maldonado, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network

Convergence research and knowledge co-creation are an increasing focus throughout the scientific enterprise, harnessed by the power of science as a process for connections. We propose this pre-conference workshop to gather AGU participants for a sharing dialogue around convergence research and science. The working group facilitators are coming together through the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts (RVCC): The National Indigenous and Earth Sciences Convergence Hub, a project that weaves Traditional wisdom, knowledges, and modern methodologies to understand the interactions between natural, human-built, and social systems in coastal populated environments. RVCC is working to improve our understanding of how climate impacts four diverse coastal regions – Alaska (Arctic), Louisiana (Gulf of Mexico), Hawai‘i (Pacific Islands), and Puerto Rico (Caribbean Islands) -- and to provide local communities with the information they need to take action and protect their lifeways. 

The RVCC Hub takes a convergence science approach to our collaborative work. We offer through this workshop our collective voice and a lens through which we work to consider convergence science, acknowledging this cannot be shared through written word alone, but also through multiple media formats and storytelling traditions. Rather than being defined and driven by the prevailing thought processes, we share a lens to convergence science as an expression of radically affirming the deep relationality of life of the planet, of Mother Earth, of the affirmation that we are all related.

The workshop will focus on an engaged conversation around the following core questions: what is the RVCC Hub’s collective vision of convergence research? What does community-driven convergence research look like? How can we better work to share capacity and focus on community priorities? What needs to change in education and training to enable authentic community-driven research? We invite participants to share their experiences, lessons learned, emerging questions and challenges, and harness our collective imagination in going from the theory of convergence research to practice, and to support a thriving and livable future. We will create space for reflection about convergence research and science processes, to develop a successful, inclusive framework(s) for cross-cultural convergence research that can be adopted and adapted by future research collaborations.