Organizer: The Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions at University of California, Santa Cruz

Type/Location: Hybrid / Santa Cruz, CA

Description:

Slow Seminars are an invitation for participants of different academic and non-academic backgrounds, and levels of expertise, to engage in discussions based on selected works. Works include academic publications, art, film, or literary works, which can be selected from a single field of expertise, or from a range of fields engaging with the same topic in divergent, related, or unique ways.

Slow Seminars are thus opportunities for building understanding and communication across different fields and communities, which often entails slowing down and unpacking technical language and paradigms. Slowing down also encourages us to notice various forms of impasse that sometimes get in the way of discussion and collaboration. On top of building knowledge about a topic and various fields, Slow Seminars are experimental spaces for growing dynamic collaborations that are necessary for addressing critical environmental issues.

The Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions at University of California, Santa Cruz will host a slow seminar with Dr. Cynthia Fowler, Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Wofford College, as she will discuss her book Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia.

Speaker:

Dr. Cynthia Fowler is Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department and a Professor at Wofford College. Fowler has published her research results in articles and books, including Fire Otherwise: Ethnobiology of Burning for a Changing World (2018), Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Interactions and Environmental Variations in Indonesia (2016), and Ignition Stories: Indigenous Fire Ecology in the Indo-Australian Monsoon Zone (2013).

Moderator:

Dr. Joe Klein, a postdoctoral fellow with SEACoast, will start the discussion off with opening remarks. He is a social and environmental researcher, analyst, writer, and conservationist with 10+ years of on-the-ground experience studying human dimensions of biodiversity conservation and links between environmental and economic change. He is passionate about cultural and biological diversity both at sea and on land.

Registration:

To attend online, please register here