72.065-10 - Taking the Animist Turn in Environmental Education?

• In Event: 72.065 - Roundtable Session 30

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Many involved in environmental education are closet animists. Naming oneself as an animist and scholar remains a counter-hegemonic act. Are we, in environmental education, prepared to take animism seriously? What are the implications of doing so? Of not doing so? Speaking together and independently as Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, presenters will each speak autoethnographically from “animist selves” making room for the voices of the more-than-human in our dialogue. We will prompt candid discussion about the place of animism in our field and invite collective consideration of whether or not we as a field are adequately prepared or willing to make an ‘animist turn,’ and if so, what is needed – in our practices, our journals, our languages, and our ethics.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Environmental Education

Chair

• Sean Blenkinsop, Simon Fraser University

Papers

• An Animist Worldview is an Indigenous Worldview - Shauneen Pete, University of Regina

• Teaching in a World of Active, Communicating More-than-Human Others - Laura Piersol, Simon Fraser University

• Reanimating our Relationship with the Natural World - Heesoon Bai, Simon Fraser University

• Am I an Animist? An Auto-Reconnoiter - Sean Blenkinsop, Simon Fraser University

• Embodying Animism in the Academy - M.J. Barrett, University of Saskatchewan