How do we place ourselves in the climate crisis? Are we at home? Do we search for roots denied us or taken away? Can we quiet our busy minds and bodies to receive more than visitors do; to hear the plants and trees, to sense another, to protect and love as do inhabitants? How can poetry, stories, movement, and art reveal and invite us to practice re-inhabitation with all beings: seeing/knowing/feeling/spirit-learning?

This reflective presentation engages these questions by exploring the territories of places as descriptive memories of times and seasons, courageous resistance and unjust death, and practiced habitation. It invites a clear accounting of cultural geographies and social constructions of identity, location, and power. It encourages close relations with phenomena, the stuff of seeing/knowing/feeling/spirit-learning born of profound interdependence, ethical engagement, and joy.

Barbara (Bobbi) Patterson, PhD

Emory University

Convening Faculty, Fellow, Planning Committee Member, Reviewer, Steering Council Member

Bobbi Patterson’s scholarship focuses on lived religion and place, human and earth ecosystems, and pedagogy, particularly those involving community-based partnerships. Her scholarly training and teaching engages Christian and Buddhist contemplative … MORE