Dust to Earth: Radical Environmental Activism and Terrestrial Ecotopias
Study Sessions are informal and intimate discussion groups. This season's series, Dust to Earth, expands on our current exhibition Our Silver City, 2094. The title refers to extra-terrestrial particles known as cosmic dust, a key source for life on earth. Readings and discussions explore forms of relationships between the sea, the land and the sky. Cosmic dust becomes a starting point to explore ideas of geology, cosmology, deep time and collective resistance.
In this session, we’ll explore key themes and trends within green utopianism and ‘terrestrial ecotopianism’ of radical environmental activists’ which strives to enact more ethical and egalitarian human-nonhuman relations in the ‘here below’ on our damaged terra. We’ll close with reflections on how we might enact worlds that work for the many- human and nonhuman alike.
Reading
Alberro, H., 2021. In and Against Eco-Apocalypse: On the Terrestrial Ecotopianism of Radical Environmental Activists. Utopian Studies, 32(1), pp.36-55.
A PDF copy of this article is available here.
Further Reading
Le Guin, U.K., 2016. Always coming home (Vol. 149). Hachette UK
About the event
Online. Free. Limited Capacity.
Booking is required.
You can access this event through the Zoom meeting link available on booking.
There will be automated live captioning for this event.
A transcription for this event is not available afterwards due to the intimate nature of the event.
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event.
The duration of the event is one and a half hours. A rest break is not included.
Heather Alberro is currently a lecturer in global sustainable development at Nottingham Trent University's Department of History, Languages and Global Culture. Her PhD thesis featured an examination of radical environmental activists (REA's) as contemporary ecotopian manifestations amid the socio-ecological perturbations of the Anthropocene. Key areas of research/interest include critical social theory, utopian/green utopian studies, environmental sociology, literary ecocriticism, political ecology, and critical animal studies. Recent publications include the chapter ‘Interspecies’ in The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene (2021) and ‘In and Against Eco-Apocalypse: On the Terrestrial Ecotopianism of Radical Environmental Activists’ in the journal Utopian Studies.
Event:
Dust to Earth: Radical Environmental Activism and Terrestrial EcotopiasDates:
18 Jan 2022, 6.30pm–8pmCurator:
Canan Batur
Supported by:
