Paradoxical Perspectives on Cultural Psychotherapy: What is a Cultural Intervention?

Chris Robertson, Climate Psychology Alliance (speaking on his own behalf)

Seldom addressed in COP21 were the underlying cultural and social dynamics that constrain people from acting in ways that fit their espoused values. This talk seeks to address these issues by looking at how psychotherapists are able to understand these cultural dynamics and complexes that may hinder environmental action (more).

Against Anthropocene and for the Ecocritical Psyche

Susan Rowland, Pacifica Graduate Institute

This paper seeks to shed light on the ecocritical psyche. Made possible through Jung’s psychoanalysis, it teaches that what we know of climate change remains open and receptive to epistemologies of intuition, embodied knowing, feeling, eros, connectivity and creativity, as well as the rational disciplines that dominate the scientific Anthropocene. Tackling climate change requires re-membering the humanities as necessary partner to rejuvenation (more).

On The Brink of Extinction

Jon Mills, Adler Graduate Professional School

Are we on the brink of human extinction?  This paper delves into the risks humanities faces, risks that primarily are due to our own actions. Acknowledging the interconnected planetary ecological crisis we have initiative that may precipitate such a collapse of civilization, this talk forces us to consider the real possibility of actions that could lead to our demise (more).

The Extinction Paradox

Martin Bunzl, Rutgers University

It is often argued that by harming the planet we are violating the rights of future people by making their lives worse off. What happens however, if we harm the planet so much that no future people can even live, how can we wrong them if they will never come into being? This presentation explores this seeming paradox and its implications towards our relationship with the environment (more).

Risk, Uncertainty, and Climate Change

Richard Cohen, University of California, San Diego

This talk explores the difference between risk and true uncertainty in light of climate change events, which the author argues follows more of true uncertainty. Through a humanities lens which embraces uncertainty in the form of mysteries, this talk advocates a similar embrace in the sciences, one that gives full credence to the unmeasurable facts of human subjectivity, emotionality, and spirituality (more).

Ontological Problems in Intergenerational Climate Ethics

Matthias Fritsch, Concordia University

Climate change debates over justice are inherently complex because not only are our actions affecting people today but will affect them generations to come. As a result, the ethics surrounding such actions are by no means clear cut. This presentation will analyze the debate of whether our current ethical system is sufficient to consider these options, and if not, what needs to be done to address these deficiencies (more).

Valuing Histories of Activism:Empowering Us in the Battle Against Climate Change

Alex Ketchum, McGill University

Food production and consumption are prominent fronts of the climate change battle and have been for several decades. By tracing the historical backdrop of these processes it is possible garner insight into the social and environmental impacts associated with them over time. In particular, this paper looks at feminist food activists to provide a framework of how history can be a valuable field in our current struggle against environmental degradation (more).

Can Environmental Law Work for the People Who Need It Most?

Tamara L Slater, Washington University School of Law

It is often the case that communities harmed most by environmental degradation and climate change are repeatedly marginalized and ignored by our current legal system. This talk utilizes a critical race theory framework to explore why there is a failure on the part of legal regimes to promote equality in light of climate change. Despite this, the author argues that these regimes nonetheless have the capabilities for equality if they are just given the opportunity to do so (more).

Literary Studies and the Geography of Climate Change: Towards a Transpacific Network of Disaster

Danielle Crawford, University of California, Santa Cruz

The adverse effects of climate change are expected to impact the globe unevenly, often with poorer nations who have contributed negligibly to the problem bearing the worst of it. In order to address this injustice, this talk looks towards disaster literature from Asia and the Pacific to both highlight the vulnerability of the area and the transpacific reach of the disasters. (more).

An Environmental Utopia: Black Mirror and the “Trouble with Wilderness”

Ben Van Overmeire, University of California, San Diego

This presentation will explore ecocriticsm through the form of the BBC’s science fiction series Black Mirror, specifically through the concept of an environmental utopia. Focusing on the ‘no-place’ aspect of utopia, the presenter draws a connection between the series and William Cronon’s critique of “wilderness” suggesting how the only way to achieve an environmental utopia may be to remove humans from it (more).

Seeing Whole: Ed Roberson’s Radical Ecology of Vision

Jessica Eileen Jones, Duke University

In efforts to re-envision perspectives of ecocriticism, this talk delves into the understudied nature poetry of Ed Roberson. Roberson’s non-Western ideas of vision, it argues, results in a new way of seeing the world that is fundamentally ecological. In doing so, the author argues that Roberson gives ecocritics the chance to move beyond a mode of critique and theorize instead an alternative ethics of envisioning the natural world (more).

Creek Walking Dialogue: Art and Environmental Activism

Brogan Bunt, Lucas Ihlein, Kim Williams, University of Wollongong

This video captures a collaborative effort to explore the role of art in both local and global environmental issues. Through a creek walk that engages both the environment and community members, the authors hope to assess the efficacy of their project and reinvigorate dialogue of art and environmental issues (more).

As climate changes I order a salad’: contemporary poetry and the strange times of climate change

Sam Solnick, University of Liverpool

To fully understand climate change and its implications requires negotiating different spans and moments of time, something that poetry is particularly well suited to. This talk looks at some of the most interesting ways that contemporary poets have considered the relationships between time, technology and poetic form in an era of climate crisis (more).

Teaching the Anthropocene with Graphic Novels

Laura Perry, University of Wisconsin, Madison

This presentation analyzes the potential graphic novels have to explore ecological questions in the classroom. Through readings of two contemporary texts, the talk will show how graphic novels can encourage readers to notice nonhuman presences within narratives and foster discussions of environmental and temporal phenomena that extend beyond human perspectives
(more).