More-Than-Human Rights Ideas Festival: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Earthly Flourishing
Join us for the ideas festival More-Than-Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Earthly Flourishing, organized by the More Than Human Life (MOTH) Project at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. The ideas festival will be held from March 12th through 14th, 2025 at NYU Law in New York City.
Debates and initiatives on the rights of the more-than-human world are here to stay. Recent developments in the natural sciences, moral philosophy, and politics have fundamentally questioned the categorical distinction between human and non-human forms of life that is at the core of modern law and human rights thought and practice. However, legal thought and practice, including human rights, remain largely anthropocentric.
The premise of this festival is that a fruitful discussion of the rights of nature – or, as we propose to call them, more-than-human (MOTH) rights – needs to consider a broad range of knowledges and practices. In order to advance this dialogue, we recently published the book More-Than-Human Rights: An Ecology of Law, Thought and Narrative for Earthly Flourishing, edited by César Rodríguez-Garavito. This interdisciplinary festival of ideas will bring together scholars and practitioners from diverse fields and disciplinary backgrounds, including the social sciences, law, natural sciences, philosophy and the arts, to explore the concept of more-than-human rights from various angles.
The ideas festival will be organized around five main thematic areas:
- More-than-human rights in theory: conceptual approaches to the more-than-human world, including philosophical frameworks, Indigenous thought, and spiritual approaches that emphasize ecological and holistic thinking.
- More-than-human rights in practice: cases, campaigns, and sociolegal mobilizations for the recognition of the rights and interests of the more-than-human world.
- MOTH rights innovations: social, legal, political, and technological innovations for engagement with the more-than-human world.
- MOTH in the natural sciences: advances in botany, mycology, ethology, physics, and other fields that drive home the entanglement of the human and the more-than-human worlds.
- Storytelling in the more-than-human rights field: literary journalism, fiction, and other narratives that engage with the well-being and rights of the more-than-human world.
Participants will engage in roundtable discussions of their papers, supplemented by keynote sessions led by experts in the field. Keynote speakers include:
* Merlin Sheldrake: Biologist and author of the best-selling book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
* David Gruber: Marine biologist & Founder & President of Project CETI, an interdisciplinary scientific organization that uses advanced robotics and applied computer sciences to listen to and translate sperm whale communications
* Jonathan Watts: Journalist, co-founder of Sumaúma, and global environment editor at The Guardian
* Christine Winter: Senior Lecturer in environmental, climate change, multispecies, and indigenous politics at the University of Otago (New Zealand)
* José Gualinga: Former Tayak Apu (president) of the Sarayaku Indigenous People and current advisor to the Tayjasaruta (Sarayaku Governing Council); spearheaded the development of the Kawsak Sacha Initiative
To participate in the ideas festival, please submit an application using the provided link before August 31st, 2024. Your application should include a brief summary (250 words) of the paper (up to 10,000 words) you intend to present at the festival. Papers may represent ongoing research, entirely new projects, or already published work. Two months prior to the festival (mid-January 2025), all participants must submit their papers for review by fellow participants.
For inquiries about the ideas festival or the More Than Human Life Project, please contact Carlos Andrés Baquero-Díaz (cbd311@nyu.edu) and Jacqueline Gallant (jbg445@nyu.edu)