Ecological Grief: Loss, Mourning, & Imagining Alternative Futures

Register: https://tinyurl.com/NWecologicalgrief 
June 2, 12:00 pm CT

Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities
Northwestern University

In a 2018 article in Nature Climate Change, Ashlee Consulo and Neville Ellis used the term “ecological grief” to describe “The grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change.” As communities the world over endure one crisis after another, that such grief can be experienced at both individual and collective levels is hardly surprising, and it serves as a stark reminder that environmental change is not a future or distant issue; rather, it is here and now, and often deeply personal. In the face of the very real losses that we will continue to face, how do we acknowledge this grief, while also avoiding a sense of cynicism or resignation to an ecological dystopia?

In this event, reconciliation ecologist, Dr. Madhusudan Katti, and critical Indigenous studies scholar-artist, Dr. Zoe Todd, will discuss how we might respond to ecological grief in ways that work towards alternative futures that embody a more-than-human co-existence.. This conversation will be moderated by Dr. Tuyen Le (ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow, Kaplan Institute).