In the lead-up to the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this November, OU Professor of Religious Studies Graham Harvey has partnered with Border Crossings to commission Indigenous Mexican artist Jun Tiburcio to design TOTEM LATAMAT. There are dates and locations you can visit the totem on its journey from London to Glasgow for COP26.

This workshop invites contributions around new teaching and research methodologies which can aid expressive and reflective engagement with contemporary global challenges exacerbated by the climate crisis. CFP is open.

How do contemporary writers concerned about climate change begin to address this subject? Can imaginative writing create new ways of relating to the natural world? What is the role of metaphor, symbol or experimental strategies in this? And can writing help develop habits of attention which lead to fresh perceptions? This panel will ask whether climate writing itself is intrinsically an act of political dissent at the present moment.

This live virtual panel reflects on our relationships with wildlife in cities in response to Marco Barotti’s Woodpeckers that are installed in public spaces around Milton Keynes during the IF Festival 2021. The panel opens up conversation between environmentally engaged academics, educators, activists, birders, and the public.

Prof Shonil Bhagwat will give a short lecture followed by a dialogue with British artist Luke Jerram, creator of Gaia, on the topic of Gaia, Sacred Earth, asking if the ways in which we map, represent, talk about, and even talk to the Earth, can change the unsustainable ways in which we relate to our planet.