Freya Mathews is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Philosophy at La Trobe University, Australia. She is the author of over a hundred books, articles and essays in the area of ecological philosophy, including the 1991 classic, The Ecological Self (re-issued in 2021). Her latest book, The Dao of Civilization: a Letter to China, appeared in 2023. In addition to her research activities, she co-manages a private conservation estate in northern Victoria. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Attending to the More-than-Human World
Living One 2025, Series One
This first series, Attending to the More-Than-Human World, explores the ethics of attention –why it matters when we unhook our minds and attention from human privilege and ground in the perspectives of Animals, Plants, Rivers, Seas, Forests. Six incisive thinkers discuss ways to pay deep and loving attention to Animals and Plants. Through various approaches – empathy, shared embodiment, animism and holism – they offer thoughtful and practical guidance on how the well-being and self-determination of our fellow earth-beings can be supported and revitalized.
NEW! For the first time we are offering a companion course for the first series, Attending to the More-Than-Human World. Anyone and everyone who would like to engage more deeply can sign up for the course with instructor Isabella Clarke.
Webinar Schedule (Click on speaker name and title for speaker biosketch)
Silvia Caprioglio Panizza is a philosopher working on moral psychology, interested in attention, (im)possibility, perception, trust, and all the ways in which we (fail to) meet the world. Apparently, she likes to travel: she has worked as a lecturer and researcher at UEA (UK), UCD (Ireland), Pardubice (Czechia), and currently Tübingen (Germany). She is the author of The Ethics of Attention: Engaging the Real with Iris Murdoch and Simone Weil (Routledge 2022), co-editor of The Murdochian Mind (Routledge 2022), and co-editor and co-translator of Simone Weil’s Venice Saved (Bloomsbury 2019) and Mirror of Obedience (Bloomsbury 2023). Non-human animals, how to do justice to them, and how to make the world a little better for them, are at the centre of much of her thinking.
Eva Meijer is a philosopher, visual artist, writer and singer-songwriter. They write novels, philosophical essays, academic texts, poems and columns, and their work has been translated into over twenty languages. Recurring themes in the work are language, including silence, madness, nonhuman animals, and politics. Meijer also works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, writes essays and columns for Dutch newspapers, and is a member of the Multispecies Collective.
Ralph Acampora is the author of Corporal Compassion: Animal Ethics and Philosophy of Body (2006), editor of Metamorphoses of the Zoo: Animal Encounter After Noah (2010), and co-editor of A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal (2003). He has written many articles and chapters in the arena of animal philosophy (ontology, morality, etc.). Acampora teaches widely in applied ethics among other areas, has served as an animal advocate, and worked as a park ranger before entering the academic profession.
Skye was raised on the edge of a wildlife reserve in South Africa, where she spent most of her days exploring outdoors and immersed in the Imaginal World. She now lives on Wurundjeri Country, in Melbourne Australia with her husband, toddler and Border Collie. Her early years were spent working in wildlife rehabilitation and as a Wilderness Guide in the South African bush. She then underwent a traditional 3 year apprenticeship in Taoist Healing practises before moving to the Peruvian Amazon where she entered into a full-time traditional curanderismo apprenticeship with her Shipibo teachers of the Mahua – Lopez lineage. On return from the jungle, she has been passionate about finding meaningful ways to deepen into and integrate the life altering paradigmatic shifts she experienced through her time learning from the plants. This is primarily done through her work as a facilitator of Experiential Deep Ecology workshops, as a Folk Herbalist, a Community Grief Ritualist, a leader of Study Groups on the work of Stephen Harrod Buhner and his body of work on “contemplative animism”, and as a facilitator of immersive group experiences into practices focusing on reclamation of Living Earth Perception, Mythic Imagination and Ritual Rhythms.
Erik Jampa Andersson, MA, is an environmental historian, teacher, and the author of Unseen Beings: How We Forgot the World is More Than Human (Hay House UK, 2023). With a twenty-year background in Tibetan studies, his current research focuses on animistic philosophies and the critical intersection of ecology, spirituality, and health in a more-than-human world. His research also extends into the field of Tolkien studies, where he explores critical ecological and animistic themes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythopoeic corpus. Erik holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a graduate of the Shang Shung Institute School of Tibetan Medicine.
Freya Mathews is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Philosophy at La Trobe University, Australia. She is the author of over a hundred books, articles and essays in the area of ecological philosophy, including the 1991 classic, The Ecological Self (re-issued in 2021). Her latest book, The Dao of Civilization: a Letter to China, appeared in 2023. In addition to her research activities, she co-manages a private conservation estate in northern Victoria. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Webinar Recordings
Erik Jampa Andersson, MA, is an environmental historian, teacher, and the author of Unseen Beings: How We Forgot the World is More Than Human (Hay House UK, 2023). With a twenty-year background in Tibetan studies, his current research focuses on animistic philosophies and the critical intersection of ecology, spirituality, and health in a more-than-human world. His research also extends into the field of Tolkien studies, where he explores critical ecological and animistic themes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythopoeic corpus. Erik holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a graduate of the Shang Shung Institute School of Tibetan Medicine.
Skye was raised on the edge of a wildlife reserve in South Africa, where she spent most of her days exploring outdoors and immersed in the Imaginal World. She now lives on Wurundjeri Country, in Melbourne Australia with her husband, toddler and Border Collie. Her early years were spent working in wildlife rehabilitation and as a Wilderness Guide in the South African bush. She then underwent a traditional 3 year apprenticeship in Taoist Healing practises before moving to the Peruvian Amazon where she entered into a full-time traditional curanderismo apprenticeship with her Shipibo teachers of the Mahua – Lopez lineage. On return from the jungle, she has been passionate about finding meaningful ways to deepen into and integrate the life altering paradigmatic shifts she experienced through her time learning from the plants. This is primarily done through her work as a facilitator of Experiential Deep Ecology workshops, as a Folk Herbalist, a Community Grief Ritualist, a leader of Study Groups on the work of Stephen Harrod Buhner and his body of work on “contemplative animism”, and as a facilitator of immersive group experiences into practices focusing on reclamation of Living Earth Perception, Mythic Imagination and Ritual Rhythms.
Ralph Acampora is the author of Corporal Compassion: Animal Ethics and Philosophy of Body (2006), editor of Metamorphoses of the Zoo: Animal Encounter After Noah (2010), and co-editor of A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal (2003). He has written many articles and chapters in the arena of animal philosophy (ontology, morality, etc.). Acampora teaches widely in applied ethics among other areas, has served as an animal advocate, and worked as a park ranger before entering the academic profession.
Eva Meijer is a philosopher, visual artist, writer and singer-songwriter. They write novels, philosophical essays, academic texts, poems and columns, and their work has been translated into over twenty languages. Recurring themes in the work are language, including silence, madness, nonhuman animals, and politics. Meijer also works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam, writes essays and columns for Dutch newspapers, and is a member of the Multispecies Collective.
Silvia Caprioglio Panizza is a philosopher working on moral psychology, interested in attention, (im)possibility, perception, trust, and all the ways in which we (fail to) meet the world. Apparently, she likes to travel: she has worked as a lecturer and researcher at UEA (UK), UCD (Ireland), Pardubice (Czechia), and currently Tübingen (Germany). She is the author of The Ethics of Attention: Engaging the Real with Iris Murdoch and Simone Weil (Routledge 2022), co-editor of The Murdochian Mind (Routledge 2022), and co-editor and co-translator of Simone Weil’s Venice Saved (Bloomsbury 2019) and Mirror of Obedience (Bloomsbury 2023). Non-human animals, how to do justice to them, and how to make the world a little better for them, are at the centre of much of her thinking.
