The President's Lecture Series
The President’s Lecture Series will provide an opportunity for all to gather, learn and discuss the ideas and issues that animate our communities. President Bodnar looks forward to hosting a series that challenges all of us to engage in meaningful—and enjoyable—learning both on campus and in the community.
David Abram
Title: The Commonwealth of Breath: Climate and Consciousness in Animistic Perspective
This event is the Brennan Guth Memorial Lecture in Environmental Philosophy
- Monday, March 2, 2020
- Dennison Theatre, UM
- 6:30 p.m. (doors) 7:30 p.m. (lecture)
Afternoon Event: "Magic and the Machine: Technology and Wonder in an Age of Ecological Wipeout"
- Monday, March 2, 2020
- Gallagher Business Building 123
- 3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
David Abram Biography
David Abram — cultural ecologist and geophilosopher — is the author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, and of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. Described as "revolutionary" by the Los Angeles Times, as “daring” and “truly original” by Science, Dr. Abram’s work has helped catalyze the emergence of several new disciplines, including the broad field of ecopsychology. His books have been translated into many languages, while his essays on the cultural causes and consequences of environmental disarray are published in diverse magazines, scholarly journals, and anthologies. A close student of the traditional ecological knowledge systems (TEK) of indigenous cultures around the world, David was the first contemporary philosopher to advocate for a reappraisal of "animism" as a complexly nuanced and ecologically viable worldview – a broad reappraisal that is now underway in many disciplines. A recipient of the international Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, David lectures and teaches widely around the world; he recently held the international Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo. David is the creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE); he lives with his family in the foothills of the southern Rockies.