Spaces of Solastalgia, Grief, and Loss Teach-in

A one-day teach-in on the practical and philosophical, individual and collective ways we can contend with experiencing death, loss, grief, resistance, anger, and mourning caused by climate collapse and its impact on all species, including our own. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), more than two-thirds of Americans are currently experiencing some form of climate-collapse-related grief or eco-anxiety. Too often, pedagogic responses lean towards mono-disciplinary, techno-utopian ‘solutions’, that fail to acknowledge—as we must—that we cannot avert what has already begun—and that we need to grieve for what we will inevitably lose and have already lost. Convened by renowned academics and visiting speakers from different disciplines at Pratt, this one-day, interdisciplinary, and intersectionality-informed teach-in will provide a safe space in which to explore practical and philosophical, individual and collective ways we can contend with the grief, loss, resistance, anger, and mourning caused by climate collapse. Adopting a heart-centered approach, what constitutes a non-cerebral curricula response to a world on fire? Are our disciplines—from architecture and historic preservation to philosophy and the fine arts—complicit in forms of greenwashing for climate action?