In this episode of URBAN NATURE, cultural and critical theorist Verena Conley and Gabriel Kozlowski talk about ecology in the context of culture and philosophy while discussing its connection to care ethics, feminism, and materialism. Conley argues that our survival depends on realizing a more direct connection with animals, plants and other life forms that share the same ecosystems with us.

On the second episode, our guest is Verena Andermatt Conley. Verena is a cultural and critical theorist who has been teaching at Harvard since 1996 in Comparative Literature, and Romance Languages and Literature. She writes on current dilemmas in the natural and urban environments and her publications include among many Ecopolitics: The Environment in Poststructuralist Theory (1997), Spatial Ecologies: Urban Sites, State and World-Space in French Cultural Theory (2012) and Rethinking Technologies (1993-1997). She also has just finished On Care: A Plea for Etho-Ecology (2022). Verena is an affiliate of the Harvard University Committee for the Environment and an associate of the Harvard Urban Mellon Initiative. 

"We have to do some rethinking of matter not as dead as it was assumed to be, but matter that is everywhere. Explore the liveliness of matter and see how the implications are, how the relationship is between humans and nature, animal, plants and the environment. Explore a way of a new alliance and rethink these boundaries." -Verena Conley

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A '74PODCAST Series, URBAN NATURE is hosted by Gabriel Kozlowski, Brazilian architect and curator working on urbanization from the perspective of political ecology. The Series presents guests from a diverse set of disciplines—including Anthropology, Biology, Philosophy, Political Science, Political Theory, Geography, Architecture, the Arts, among others—that have been reflecting on the relationship between humans and nature.

Episode recorded on Zoom in April 2022.

Produced by ISTANBUL'74.