Lecture: Simone Kotva on Mysticism and Ecology

Date
Fri May 26th 2023, 4:30 - 6:00pm
Event Sponsor
Structured Liberal Education (SLE)
Department of Religious Studies
Location
Florence Moore Hall
436 Mayfield Ave, Stanford, CA 94305
Paloma Lounge (Main Lounge)

Join Structured Liberal Education and Religious Studies for a lecture with Simone Kotva on mysticism and ecology. 

What does ecstasy and religious trance have to do with ecology? According to one influential narrative, mystical experiences are so rarefied or so rare as to have no bearing on earthlife. In this talk, Kotva debunks some of the misconceptions regarding mysticism. In particular, she talks about mysticism and speciesism and shows how, historically, mysticism has been seen as a multi-species activity connecting humans to a more-than-human field.

Kotva is a philosopher of religion working at the intersection of theology, critical theory and earth ethics. She received her PhD in 2015 from the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, and has taught at the Universities of Gothenburg and Cambridge. Currently, Kotva is a research fellow at the multidisciplinary ECODISTURB project, based in the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo. She is also an affiliated lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.

Kotva is the author of Effort and Grace: On the Spiritual Exercise of Philosophy, a monograph on what it means to practice philosophy as a way of life and spiritual exercise. She is currently working on projects on ecologies of ecstasy and magic and ecology and actively shares her research on several social media accounts. @thisnonhumanity

Lecture will be followed by a sushi reception. Event is free and open to the public.