Following Eduardo Kohn's January 22nd lecture, "Soul Vine: on the Origins and Ends of the World-Called Forest," graduate students are invited to join him for a lunch workshop, during which his chapter, "Directions From a Shape," will be discussed.
Registrants are asked to read the chapter in advance and come prepared for the discussion. Graduate students are also welcome to come prepared with questions about Professor Kohn's research. This event is presented by Environmental Humanities.
Please register by Monday, January 19th. The chapter will be sent via email to registrants at least two days' prior to the workshop.
Eduardo Kohn studies the intimate relationships that the indigenous peoples of Ecuador’s Upper Amazon have with one of Earth’s most complex ecosystems. Focusing on how they understand and communicate with rainforest beings has led him to the audacious conclusion that complex living systems manifest “mind” in a variety of ways. From this he develops an empirically robust framework to understand our broader relationship to such mind-like phenomena with the goal of rethinking how to live in the face of unprecedented anthropogenic climate change. His book, How Forests Think, won the 2014 Gregory Bateson Award. It is translated into several languages and has inspired the planetary ecological imagination in a surprisingly diverse number of ways ranging from an eponymous symphony premiering at Lincoln Center, to museum exhibits. He teaches Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal.