Date: Thursday, February 6, 2025, from 4:00-5:30pm
Location: Zoom
Series: Religion and Climate Elements Series
Speakers: Sophie Chao (University of Sydney) and Nikita Simpson (SOAS University of London)
Moderator: Raffaella Taylor-Seymour (Columba University)
IRCPL’s Religion and Climate series is animated by calls to reimagine human relationships with and responsibilities to the environment in an age of planetary crisis. As the impact of climate change is increasingly but unevenly felt, religion is emerging as a site of epistemological doubt, struggle, and possibility. This series explores the cosmological underpinnings that shape diverse understandings of the environment and examine how religious subjects react to and act upon the ecological upheavals they face, challenging exclusively technocratic and secular responses to the climate crisis.
The series involves four events structured around the elements—Earth, Water, Fire, and Air—each of which will take one element as a lens for engaging with specific climate struggles and the religious debates they ignite. In the final event, an online program on the theme of “Air,” Sophie Chao (University of Sydney) and Nikita Simpson (SOAS, University of London) will discuss their work on climate change, atmospherics and spirits in West Papua and India. This conversation will explore both the religious dimensions of air and atmospheres in these contexts, and the ways contemporary climate change emerges out of longer histories of environmental destruction.
Free and open to the public
Registration is required—Please register in advance to reserve your spot
All prospective attendees must register by 9:00AM on the day of the event. Registration will close at that time.
Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend an event at Columbia University, please contact Disability Services (disability@columbia.edu or 212-854-2388) at least 10 days in advance of the event. Requests for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) or sign language interpretation require two weeks' notice.