Earth, Gods, and the Politics of Enchantment: A Political Ecology of Imagination
Dr. Adrian Ivakhiv, J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities, SFU
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
5:30PM – 6:30PM
CK Choi Building, Room 120
Presented by UBC Program in Religion and co-sponsored by UBC Anthropology and UBC Geography
Abstract:
Populist politicians and conspiracy cults enchant their followers through fear – of migrants, End Times, or an imagined nefarious World Government – and through promises of a backward-looking and insular social solidarity – of white Christian America (or Europe), Hindu India, et al. This talk presents a “political ecology of imagination” that can help us conceive enchantments that might propel the human imagination toward a forward-looking and expansive social solidarity, one that not only bridges across human borders but embraces an animate and more-than-human world.
About
Adrian Ivakhiv holds Simon Fraser University’s J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities. Until 2024, he was Professor of Environmental Thought and Culture at the University of Vermont. His books include Claiming Sacred Ground: Pilgrims and Politics at Glastonbury and Sedona (2001), Ecologies of the Moving Image: Cinema, Affect, Nature (2013), Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times (2018), and The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds (forthcoming 2025).
