Learning to "Stay With the Trouble": Mourning and Ecological Loss

• In Event: Bearing Witness and the Ethics of Care

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has made the experiences of “grief” and “mourning” widely shared experiences. Amidst the losses of the pandemic, losses due to climate change and other forms of ecological degradation continued to stretch almost invisibly across the globe. This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of “ecological losses” and the importance of mourning such losses. I begin by examining “the work of mourning”, wherein the mourning subjects processes loss in order to “relearn” their world after loss. Next, I outline how mourning acts as an integral step in Donna Haraway’s concept of “staying with the trouble”. Finally, I explore the role of remembrance in mourning and propose some educational possibilities introduced by the mourning process.

Author

• Jessica Lussier, University of British Columbia