EXPLORING ENERGY
Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology
Friday, February 8, 2019
LOCATION | Old Refectory, School of Divinity, Yale University
8:15 – 9:00 AM Light Breakfast & Registration
9:00 AM Welcome Remarks
9:05 – 9:50 AM Morning Keynote
Youth: The Fuel for Driving Sustainability | Kehkashan Basu, Winner of 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize
9:55 – 10:55 AM Panel 1: Envisioning Ecological Wellbeing
When Energy is Healing: Individual and Planetary Connections | Sara Jolena Wolcott, Sequoia Samanvaya
Furthering an Intercentric Environmental Ethic: Moving Beyond Anthropocentrism and Biocentrism to Focus on the Ecological and Spiritual Reality of Interconnection | Nathan Empsall, Yale Divinity School, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Sustainable Development and Restorative Justice: You Can’t Have One Without The Other | Nikos Valance, Claremont School of Theology
11:00 – 12:00 PM Panel 2: Food, Agriculture, and Community
We Eat Together: cross-cultural case studies of food sovereign, energy independent communities | Polly Korbel, Yale University
Eating Divine Energy: Prana as a Source of Physical and Spiritual Nourishment | Blair Nelsen, Yale Divinity School
Sadhana, Food, and Waste Governance as Ecological Sanbao in the Anthropocene: Intersecting Three Self-cultivation Practices for Ecological Resilience. | William J. Gekas, Trinity College, Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto
Haven to Heathen and the Transformation of Agriculture in Hawai’i | Michelle Winglee, Yale University
12:05 – 12:55 PM Lunch
1:00 – 1:45 PM Afternoon Keynote
Introduction of Dr. Lothes | Mary Evelyn Tucker, Co-Founder of the Forum on Religion and Ecology
Religious Energy Ethics: Criteria and Commitments | Dr. Erin Lothes, Author, “Catholic Moral Traditions and Energy Ethics for the Twenty-first Century” (2016)
1:50 – 2:50 PM Panel 3: Ecology in Contemporary Christianity
What Does It Mean To Be “Pro”-Creation? Laudato si’ in Conversation with Jeremiah 4:19-31| Emma McDonald, Yale University
Ecological Justice and the Preferential Option for the Poor: Guiding Moral Principles for a Contemporary Missiology | Zach Dehm, Duquesne University
An Integral Issue: Population and Birth Control in Laudato Si’ and Roman Catholic Teaching | Michael Ross, University of Toronto – St. Michael’s College
2:55 – 3:55 PM Panel 4: Reframing Ecology in Art and Literature
The Politics of Pollution in Baatarzorig’s Smoke | Samantha Wisneski, University of St. Thomas
Transcending Immanence: New Nature Writing and “Immanent Transcendence” | Annalea Thiessen, Yale University
4:00 – 5:00 PM Panel 5: Material Geographies and Spiritual Resources
The Miracle of Water: A Reading of Select Verses in Praise of Water in the Rig Veda | Lav Kanoi, Yale University
“The blood of the mountain”: Cultural discourse on water and spirituality in the Snake Valley | Michael Warren Cook, Audra Barber, & Joanne Marras Tate, University of Colorado Boulder
Spiritual and Material Energy in Light of the Bhagavata: The Environmental Teachings of AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada | Allegra Lovejoy Wiprud, Yale University
Symbiotic Development and Anticipatory Community: Energy and Devotion in the Govardhan Eco-Village | Christopher Fici, Union Theological Seminary
5:00 – 6:00 PM Closing Reception