Eco-Angst: Somatic Explorations of Healing

The Environment and Society Group in UNSW’s School of Humanities and Languages welcomes international scholar Irus Braverman, who will be leading a workshop on how to teach, research, and live with the eco-angst that permeates our classrooms, research sites, and daily existence.

As part of her research on how scientists deal with the mass extinction of species generally, and with the catastrophic impacts of climate change on earth’s marine environments in particular, Braverman has been grappling with feelings of “eco-angst” and identified similar experiences emerging for her interlocutors, students, and colleagues. She has found that her active practices and teachings of Vipassana (insight meditation), yoga, and dance and her work as a sound and movement-based healer can be helpful in this context.

Braverman will draw on her experiences to lead an experimental session that will consider how to engage with eco-angst in the classroom and on research sites, while demonstrating how movement-based healing can complement and enhance these experiences. Braverman will offer tools for engaging students in self-empowering and creative paths, including storytelling, ecopoetry, breathwork, and movement.

Finally, Braverman will draw on her experience facilitating insight meditation retreats and yoga classes to expand both instructors’ and students’ capacities to “stay with the trouble,” as Haraway refers to this practice. This will be a two-hour-long session.

This event will be hosted by Environmental Historian Taylor Sherman, Head of School for Humanities and Languages.

We STRONGLY recommend that you bring a pillow or yoga mat to sit on during the activities.