Higher Education beyond the Anthropocene

• In Event: Geo-political Shifts, Freedom and Disaster: the University in a new Spatio-temporal Era

Proposal

The multifaceted nature and urgency of the ecological crises require international, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approaches to transform education and consequently stimulate cultural shifts toward more sustainable planetary futures. This challenge cannot be solved through research solely focused on technical solutions but requires a critical interrogation of underlying assumptions about knowledge, education, and social change. This presentation examines the role and responsibility of higher education institutions in fostering the critical imagination necessary for cultural transformation in the face of the Anthropocene. How can we mobilize the power of science, art, and imagination in responding to the climate crisis emergency? How can we reshape the relationship between higher education and the sustainability agenda in ways that effectively integrate different knowledge ecosystems, bridge the research-practice divide, and prioritize planetary wellbeing? And how can we maximize the impact of our research on policy and practice?

A review of existing literature on the role of universities in advancing planetary sustainability suggests that some of the key barriers precluding higher education from engagement in climate action include a lack of awareness about the SDGs among stakeholders, as well as financial, political, logistical, and technical barriers (McCowan et al., 2021). However, there is a glaring omission of culture as a barrier in sustainability. This article argues that the planetary sustainability crisis is first and foremost a cultural problem, where culture is understood not merely as an inert or stable set of beliefs or values ‘stored’ inside people but rather as patterns of sensemaking materialized in actual practices, everyday lives, and societal institutions. The presentation makes a two-prong argument. First, higher education is deeply implicated in the planetary crisis by reproducing the dominant culture of human exceptionalism, (neo)liberal individualism, competition, and infinite economic growth. And second, our survival depends on our capacity to respond by (re)imagining and (re)learning ways of living with each other and with the Earth in more relational and interdependent ways. For higher education, this means rethinking the adequacy of our vocabularies, theories, methods, curricula, pedagogies, practices, movements, and ways of being.

This presentation examines the processes of reconfiguring higher education beyond the Anthropocene, highlighting their messy, dynamic, and contradictory nature. As the growing number of universities begin to address the climate crisis by upgrading their physical infrastructure, revising curricula, establishing new sustainability offices, or redefining research priorities, how can we ensure that their efforts don’t focus on making universities “more sustainable while maintaining business as usual” (Stein 2019, p. 198) – or, as some describe it, “business as usual, but greener” (Baskin 2019, p. 165)? Zooming in on Arizona State University (ASU), this presentation will discuss the complexities and contradictions involved in this process, including lingering attachments to the promises offered by modernity/coloniality (e.g., progress, universality, sustainable development, global competition, university rankings, etc.), as well as openings for a cultural shift that challenges the very idea of “uni-versity” and foregrounds “pluri-versity” as an alternative.

Author

• Iveta Silova, Arizona State University