In this session, Mayra Rivera, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Religion and Latinx Studies, explores the question, “How may we engage those stories in ways that honor our pasts and open possibilities for different futures?”
Environmental catastrophes can create a break in the experience of time, they can rupture the possibility of collective meaning. Yet, for communities shaped by colonialism and racism, this rupture can only be understood in relation to the past, as an event in the “unceremoniously archived procession of our catastrophes,” to use Édouard Glissant’s words. Histories of colonial and racial devastation teach us that environmental futures are linked to our pasts. We may describe them as “ancestral catastrophes,” as Elizabeth Povinelly suggests.
This is the first event is a six-part series moderated by Diane L. Moore, Diane L. Moore, Associate Dean of Religion and Public Life. This event took place on January 29, 2024.
This video has closed captions.