Co-sponsored by the Pathways to Planetary Health initiative at the Garrison Institute and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
Moderated by Stephen Posner, PhD and Mary Evelyn Tucker, PhD
The Garrison Institute and the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology are co-hosting a 4-part speaker series on Living Earth Community. This series offers space for participants to deepen their understanding of the living Earth and renew their sense of belonging during times of ecological uncertainty and social fragmentation.
The series invites participants to explore the Living Earth Community from multiple perspectives, including science, ethics, law, and ecological imagination. Together, these sessions ask what it means to live within an astonishingly diverse community of life, and how we might respond with greater awareness, reverence, responsibility, and care. Inspired by Thomas Berry’s vision of humanity as part of a “communion of subjects,” this series explores the Living Earth Community as a knowledge commons and a reason to reflect on the moral and practical implications of human-Earth relationships. Topics include the Intelligences of Nature, Ecological Worldviews, and Earth Law and Rights of Nature.
This series is a virtual companion to an inaugural Living Earth Community conference to be held on October 17, 2026 at the Yale Peabody Museum at Yale University (register here). Webinar sessions before the conference will introduce key themes, and sessions afterwards will help integrate learning and explore future next steps.
Co-hosted by Stephen Posner, PhD, with the Garrison Institute and Mary Evelyn Tucker, PhD, with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, this program contributes to a growing community of scholars, artists, practitioners, and organizations seeking to renew deep relationships with Earth and respond to this ecological moment with wisdom, creativity, and care.
WEBINAR AND CONFERENCE DATES
Pre-Conference Webinar 1
Wednesday, August 26 at 12pm ET
Introduction to Living Earth Community knowledge commons and conference
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology will introduce the Living Earth Community as a knowledge commons and a gathering place for multiple ways of understanding Earth’s community of life. This opening session will explore how science, spiritual and philosophical traditions, and emerging legal movements invite us to recognize the voices, agencies, and relationships of birds, mushrooms, trees, rivers, mountains, humans, and other members of the Earth community. Participants will be invited to consider their own place and responsibilities within the Living Earth Community and to prepare for the themes that will unfold through the October conference and speaker series.
Speakers: Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
Pre-Conference Webinar 2
Wednesday, September 9 at 12pm ET
Living Earth Community: Engaging a World of Many Voices
We dwell within an intricate and evolving community of planetary life. The world speaks—to itself and to us—in a multitude of voices, each representing a unique way of being and knowing: from the organic lives of birds, mushrooms, and trees; to the elemental bodies of stones, rivers, and mountains. Yet each of these voices is an integral member of the whole. Since our species emerged around 300,000 years ago, we have developed diverse systems of knowledge—spiritual, philosophical, and scientific—to understand and respond to the vibrant ecological community in which we live. This session will consider the confluence of these ways of knowing through the Living Earth Community project, a multimedia knowledge commons exploring the complexity of the living world through multimedia resources on the intelligences of nature, ecological worldviews, and Earth Law. Drawing from the insights of cultural historian and “geologian” Thomas Berry (1914-2009), we will explore how contemporary science is conversing with ancient spiritual traditions – at a time of polycrisis – to recover our kinship with the Earth community.
Speaker: Sam King, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
Pre-Conference Webinar 3
Wednesday, September 23 at 12pm ET
Ecological Worldviews
Lisa Dahill of Hartford International University and Erik Assadorian of the Gaian Way will explore how ecological worldviews shape human responses to a living Earth community. This session will consider ancestral and contemporary traditions, stories, rituals, practices, and lifeways that affirm interdependence, kinship, and belonging within the community of life. Participants will be invited to reflect on how renewing ecological worldviews can help address the objectification of nature and support wiser, more creative responses to this ecological moment.
Speakers: Lisa Dahill, Hartford International University, and Erik Assadorian, Gaian Way
Pre-Conference Webinar 4
Wednesday, October 7 at 12:00-1:15pm ET
Earth Law and Rights of Nature
Grant Wilson of the Earth Law Center, Raffaele Saposhnik of the Yale School of the Environment, and Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui of the University of Vermont Institute for Agroecology will examine the growing awareness of Earth Law and Rights of Nature. This session will explore how rivers, forests, mountains, and other living systems are being recognized through legal theories and practices rooted in Indigenous traditions, Earth Jurisprudence, science-law partnerships, and ecological justice movements. Participants will consider how law and governance can help protect the integrity of the biosphere and support the flourishing of both human and Earth communities.
Speakers: Grant Wilson, Earth Law Center; Raffaele Saposhnik, Yale School of the Environment; Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui, University of Vermont Institute for Agroecology
The Living Earth Community Conference
Saturday, October 17 at the Yale Peabody Museum at Yale University
Register here
This conference brings together a community of scientists, humanists, writers, and philosophers to explore the vast intelligences of nature, following the launch of the Forum’s new website: Living Earth Community. Drawing from novel scientific research and skilled nature writing, we will explore different ways of knowing and relating with the complex lives of cells, plants, and fungi; mammals and birds; trees and forests. In recent years, the differentiated sentience of nature is rising into popular consciousness–from the migrations of birds and insects to the mating rituals of mammals; from the signaling of plants to the communication networks of trees–an awareness Indigenous peoples and other cultures have recognized for millennia. Beginning with reflections on The Nature Record–a major scientific report on biodiversity in the United States–this conference will foster a deeper appreciation for the extraordinary complexity of ecosystems and consider emerging pathways of protection–including the Rights of Nature movement. It will also feature a performance of Earth music by the six-time, Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Paul Winter. The conference is hosted in conjunction with the Yale Peabody Museum. This conference is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required.
For more information, to see the full lineup of speakers, and to register, go to the registration page.
Post-Conference Webinar 5
Wednesday, October 28 at 12pm ET
Intelligences of Nature
Rachel Petersen and Russell Powell of Harvard University will explore the expanding scientific and philosophical conversation about intelligence, perception, feeling, and agency across the more-than-human world. Drawing from their work with Natalia Scott on the Harvard conference Thinking with Plants and Fungi, this session will consider how plants, fungi, animals, insects, and other beings challenge inherited assumptions that intelligence belongs only to humans. Together, participants will reflect on what the diverse intelligences of nature reveal about the living Earth and how this recognition can deepen awareness, reverence, responsibility, and care.
Speakers: Rachel Petersen and Russell Powell, Harvard University, co-directors with Natalia Scott of the Harvard conference on Thinking with Plants and Fungi
CO-HOSTS
Mary Evelyn Tucker, PhD, co-directs the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, which examines cultural and religious values for broadened environmental ethics. This arose from a series of 10 conferences at Harvard on world religions and ecology that she organized with John Grim. She has published several books on Confucianism including The Philosophy of Qi. She co-edited Confucianism and Ecology (Harvard) and two volumes with Tu Weiming on Confucian Spirituality. She is the co-author of Journey of the Universe with Brian Thomas Swimme and the executive producer of the Emmy Award winning Journey film. This was inspired by Thomas Berry whose books she edited and whose biography she wrote with John Grim.They have been traveling in China since 1985 studying Ecological Civilization.
Stephen Posner, PhD, is Senior Fellow for Planetary Health at the Garrison Institute and Global Affiliate with the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. Stephen integrates science with contemplative practices to build understanding across cultures, align human systems with nature, and promote cross-sector collaboration. He has published over 50 technical and non-technical articles on sustainability science and leverage points for systems change. He currently leads initiatives related to nature assessment and ecological stewardship
Please contact us for questions and inquiries at events@garrisoninstitute.org.