Earthborn Democracy: Responding to our Twin Ecological and Political Crises

Ali Aslam, David W. McIvor, and Joel Alden Schlosser authors of Earthborn Democracy: A Political Theory of Entangled Life will give a talk titled “Earthborn Democracy: Responding to our Twin Ecological and Political Crises.”

Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 PM in Griffin 3.
A reception with light refreshments will follow.

The relationship between ecology and democracy has a complex history and an uncertain future. Ecological crises threaten all forms of life on earth, and democracy too is an endangered species, as popular discontent, elite malfeasance, and unresponsive institutions herald democratic crisis if not collapse. We believe that our present political concepts and institutions are inadequate for meeting the challenges of living in right relation with the more-than-human world. We believe, moreover, that these inadequacies are themselves symptoms of a failing political-cultural story and a lack of concrete practices of ecological renewal. Earthborn(e) Democracy excavates political practices and stories illustrating the interdependence necessary to inspire and orient the work of ecological renewal. Resonating across these practices and stories past and present is a belief that we are all – human as well as non-human – earthborn(e), and this can serve as the basis for re-envisioning democracy.

Ali Aslam is Associate Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College. He is the author of Ordinary Democracy: Sovereignty and Citizenship Beyond the Neoliberal Impasse (2016).
David W. McIvor is Associate Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University. He is the author of Mourning in America: Race and the Politics of Loss (2016).
Joel Alden Schlosser is Professor of Political Science at Bryn Mawr College. His books include Herodotus in the Anthropocene (2020).