This thesis article analyzes Rodolfo Teófilo's novel "A fome" through the lens of ecofeminism, exploring the representations of gender and nature in Brazilian literature. The novel, set during a devastating drought in the Northeast, follows Manuel de Freitas and his family as they seek relief in Ceará. While existing criticism has focused on the novel's use of nature and masculinity, the portrayal of female characters and the connection between gender and nature representations have been overlooked. Ecofeminist theory offers a critical perspective to understand these dynamics, revealing the devaluation of women and nature in favor of men and human beings in the narrative. The novel inadvertently perpetuates this oppressive view, objectifying women and land as submissive entities open to domination, despite acknowledging their abundance and creative power. While "A fome" effectively depicts the horrors of drought and societal injustices, it misses the opportunity to explore the imbalanced, hierarchical binaries of men/women and human/nature. By embracing an ecofeminist approach, the novel could have delved into the intertwined discourses of environmental and gender justice, presenting potential for empowerment and positive change. This article emphasizes the need to interweave these discourses in Brazilian literature to create a more inclusive and equitable societal narrative.

From images of distance education (DE) in advertisements to examples of extant DE theory and practice, and finally to a possible dystopia and utopia for DE, this dissertation investigates the rich representations at the intersection of feminism, pragmatism, and web based distance education. It is composed of three parts. The first part is the construction of a feminist-pragmatic theoretical and analytical tool, motivated by images of DE in commercial advertisements. These images include control of nature (and the natural body), gendered experience, transactions of bodies and tools, loss of bodies, and atomic individualism. In response to these images, the main unifying theme of the tool is organic holism where the world as a dynamic system connects with culture, biology, history, and context. It draws heavily on the work of John Dewey, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, Shannon Sullivan, Nancy Fraser, Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, and Carolyn Merchant in order to form a rich weaving useful to instructional technologists and philosophers of education. The second part explores three examples of extant web based distance education using this tool. Lastly, I explore alternatives to current instantiations of distance education including a dystopia and a melioristic option that I call sustainable technology. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Catherine Cornille / The Christian ecological tradition rejects problematic dualisms that separate and hierarchically value the body and soul, humans and creation, man and woman, etc. Ecofeminist theology seeks to provide alternatives that better recognize the interconnectedness of life overall, yet it has not fully responded to the dualism of life and death. This is evident in the work of Ivone Gebara, a leading ecofeminist theologian who addresses life, death, and resurrection within a more immanent understanding of the Trinity. Though she argues for a more ambiguous understanding of good and evil, creation and destruction, life and death, the tensions between these categories are never fully resolved. This is where the Hindu tradition, and in particular the Kali tradition of Hinduism, may shed new light on the Christian understanding of death as part of creation and of its interconnection with all life. The goddess Kali in particular is often referred to as the mistress of death, or death itself, and as such she does not protect her devotees from the inevitability of life, suffering, and death. Instead, Kali reveals the mortality of all life and frees devotees to embody their own fate and accept their own death as she grants them liberation from samsara (the continuous cycle of dying and rebirth into the world of materiality). Gebara advocates against hierarchical dualisms of good and evil, creation and destruction, life and death, where Kali already embodies the tension of these polarities, even the transcendence of them altogether. Even though there are fundamental differences between Hindu and Christian worldviews and conceptions of the divine, the figure of Kali addresses traditional tensions between life and death and between creation and salvation, and thus inspires a more integral liberation for all creation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Yes / Planetary health sees neoliberal capitalism as a key mediator of socioecological crises, a position that is echoed in much COVID-19 commentary. In this Personal View, I set out an economic theory that emphasises some of the ways in which neoliberal capitalism's conceptualisation of value has mediated responses to COVID-19. Using the intersection of ecological, feminist, and Marxist economics, I develop an analysis of neoliberal capitalism as a specific historical form of the economy. I identify the accumulation of exchange value as a central tendency of neoliberal capitalism and argue that this tendency creates barriers to the production of other forms of value. I then analyse the implications of this tendency in the context of responses to COVID-19. I argue that resources and labour flow to the production of exchange value, at the expense of production of other value forms. Consequently, the global capitalist economy has unprecedented productive capacity but uses little of this capacity to create the conditions that improve and maintain people's health. To be more resilient to coming crises, academics, policy makers, and activists should do theoretical work that enables global economies to recognise multiple forms of value and political work that embeds these theories in societal institutions.

Harms produced by nuclear energy include the accident risks of population displacement, deaths, cancers, genetic, teratogenetic (affecting embryo and foetus) and psycho-social effects; increased radiation exposure to workers, locals and future generations from nuclear plants, uranium mines and waste storage facilities; thermal and toxic tailings pollution from nuclear plants and uranium mines; and other unknown long-term effects of increasing levels of background radiation. Historically, most greens have opposed nuclear energy alongside nuclear weapons. Recently, however, significant green spokespeople have combined with industry and governments in emphasising the need for nuclear energy in response to climate change. Based upon my experiences in the struggle against the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset, UK, this thesis contests the dominant framings of the debate. I suggest that arguments for nuclear energy are made possible by reductive understandings of the issue making it difficult to apprehend the significance of harms reinforced by nuclear energy. Taking an ecological approach I show how dominant discourses presuppose a hierarchical separation of science/politics, reinforced by and reinforcing the separation of nature/culture. These hierarchical separations depoliticise and naturalise harms produced by both nuclear energy and dominant forms of social organisation. As a result, these harms are difficult to communicate and contest as relevant to the discussion of our common futures. In this thesis I argue that we might more effectively convey the significance of these harms if we articulate them as injustices. Building upon the theory and practice of justice and liberation struggles I develop a heuristic framework for articulating injustices based around three intersecting images of politics as distribution, recognition and representation. I suggest articulating injustices of nuclear energy as i) the deprivation of basic necessities due to unequal distributions of burdens as well as goods; ii) the disrespect for ecological integrity due to desire for control of inevitable unpredictability in interaction; and iii) the denial of multiple authorities through monopolisation of rational speech and action and disengaged forms of knowledge production. Expressing harms of nuclear energy by way of this three-fold articulation of injustices politicises nuclear energy, climate change, and the dominant forms of social organisation, opening these up to political contestation to more effectively take ‘all affected’ into account before we reconsider how we might live together.

<p>Eftersom det inte finns något universellt rätt eller fel sätt att hantera jordens resurser så håller etiska frågor på att bli en allt viktigare del av diskussionen kring våra gemensamma tillgångar. Det övergripande syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och beskriva gymnasieungdomars etiska tankar kring människans förhållande till naturen. För analysen används två perspektiv som står i konflikt med varandra, nämligen de miljöetiska centrismerna och ekofeminismen, som kritiserar centrismtanken.</p><p>Sex gymnasieungdomar har intervjuats i grupper om tre angående sin syn på människans förhållande till naturen. Resultatet pekar på att elevernas miljöetik är mestadels antropocentrisk, med vissa inslag av djurrättsbiocentrism, och att de ser omsorg som ett moraliskt motiv.</p><p>I diskussionen problematiseras resultatet i förhållande till de två synsätten och kopplingar görs till den svenska samhällsdebatten, media och tecknad film. Slutsatsen är att omsorgsdimensionen bör stärkas i naturkunskapsundervisningen eftersom den idag är en outnyttjad resurs i fråga om att skapa engagemang för miljöfrågorna, men att man samtidigt inte får glömma bort att fakta utgör en viktig del av välgrundade beslut.</p> / <p>Solving environmental issues is not only a matter of good knowledge but also of ethics, since there is no absolute right or wrong in man’s way of handling nature. To be able to design a science education that meets governmental requirements and enables the students to participate in future environmental discussions it is important to be aware of their own ethic reflections. The over all aim of this study is to describe and survey the environmental ethics of students in the age of 16-19 years.</p><p>Six students at the age of 16-19 was interviewed concerning their opinion on man’s relationship to nature. The result shows that the environmental ethics of these students is mostly anthropocentric with a certain amount of animal rights biocentrism and that they consider care to be a moral reason.</p><p>The result is discussed in relation to the two different perspectives and the author makes connections to social debate, media and cartoons. The conclusion is that the perspective of care should receive more attention in science education. Care is today an unused resource of involvement to environmental issues. Finally the author pinpoints the fact that also good knowledge is absolutely necessary when making sensible decisions.</p>

This thesis focuses on the question of “how can the Keiskamma Art Project, its processes and art, be understood in relation to a contextual ecofeminist spirituality?” This study is concerned with women’s experience and expression of the divine through their creativity. It explores how women’s art projects contribute to their aesthetic and creative development and the impact it has on their lives. The study argues that the “Spirit” which manifests as the power of divine creative energy which is released through human creativity can promote full life for women in South Africa. It also explores how the creative process offers a catalyst towards change which affects both personal and communal transformation. Protest art is presented and examples of its historical use both locally and internationally are sited. The discussion offers an understanding of why subordinates in society need to find a safe place to express their protest. Art projects are presented as ‘safe’ sites for women who find themselves oppressed by their societal circumstances to find opportunity for the exploration of their ideas and personal development. Ecofeminism is presented as a contemporary protest movement and the study engages with some of the work of three key ecofeminist theologians; Rosemary Radford Ruether, Ivone Gebara and Sallie McFague. Themes are developed which best describe the characteristics of an emerging ecofeminist spirituality. The focus of the case study is on the Keiskamma Art Project, its processes and art, with specific focus on the Keiskamma Altarpiece. The process of dialogue and consultation which preceded the art making and the artwork are discussed in detail. The context of the Keiskamma Art Project is explored in location in the Eastern Cape in the rural and coastal town of Hamburg. The socio-economic context of the Keiskamma Art Project is outlined, indicating the lived reality of women engaged in this Art Project. In conclusion, the study argues that an emerging contextual ecofeminist spirituality is evidenced through the women’s art, the Keiskamma Altarpiece and the Keiskamma Art Project and has contributed towards the empowerment of local women and helped them articulate a sustainable life giving vision of hope for the future. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Garden of Eden imagery is ubiquitous in contemporary print advertising in North America, especially in advertisements directed at women. Three telling characteristics emerge in characterizations of Eve in these advertising reconstructions. In the first place, Eve is consistently hypersexualized and over-eroticized. Secondly, such Garden of Eden images often conflate the Eve figure with that of the Serpent. Thirdly, the highly eroticized Eve-Serpent figures also commonly suffer further conflation with the Garden of Eden itself. Like Eve, nature becomes eroticized. In the Eve-Serpent-Eden conflation, woman becomes nature, nature becomes woman, and both perform a single narrative plot function, in tandem with the Serpent. The erotic and tempting Eve-Serpent-Eden character is both protagonist and antagonist, seducer and seduced. In this dissertation, I engage in an ecofeminist narratological analysis of the Genesis/Fall myth, as it is retold in contemporary fashion magazine advertisements. My analysis examines how reconstructions of this myth in advertisements construct the reader, the narrator, and the primary characters of the story (Eve, Adam, the Serpent, and Eden). I then further explore the ways in which these characterizations inform our perceptions of woman, nature, and environmentalism. Using a narratological methodology, and through a poststructuralist ecofeminist lens, I examine which plot and character elements have been kept, which have been discarded, and how certain erasures impact the narrative characterizations of the story. In addition to what is being told, I further analyze how and where it is told. How is the basic plot being storied in these reconstructions, and what are the effects of this version on the archetypal characterizations of Eve and the Garden of Eden? What are the cultural and literary contexts of the reconstructed narrative and the characters within it? How do these contexts inform how we read the characters within the story? Finally, I examine the cultural effects of these narrative reconstructions, exploring their influence on our gendered relationships with each other and with the natural world around us.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka vad det finns för didaktiska möjligheter i att utföra ekokritiska läsningar av dystopisk skönlitteratur vid undervisning om hållbar utveckling i svenskämnet. För att undersöka detta utfördes en ekokritisk läsning av science fiction- romanen Blade Runner, originaltitel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, av Philip K Dick. Tanken enligt mig var att romanen och dess skildring av en dystopisk värld kunde vara intressant att uppmärksamma i gymnasiet samt använda som underlag för diskussioner om potentiella framtidsscenarion. Utöver det ville jag, genom min analys, visa på vilka frågor gällande hållbar utveckling som en ekokritisk läsning av romanen kan lyfta fram. Utifrån detta ville jag sedan diskutera vilken potential just denna roman och den dystopiska genren i allmänhet kan ha i svenskundervisningen. Resultatet visade att det, i en ekokritisk läsning av romanen, finns tolkningsmöjligheter som belyser alla de tre huvudområden som Skolverket beskriver finns inom hållbar utveckling. Det betyder med andra ord att det finns möjligheter att öppna upp för diskussioner om hållbar utveckling utifrån ekokritiska läsningar av romanen. / The purpose of this degree project was to investigate what didactic possibilities can be found by performing ecocritical readings of dystopic literature while teaching students about sustainable development in the subject of Swedish. To investigate this, an ecocritical reading of the science fiction-novel Blade Runner, original title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K Dick was performed. My thought was that the novel and its depiction of a dystopic world could be interesting to acknowledge in an upper-secondary school environment, and use as a foundation for discussions about potential scenarios of the future. In addition to this I wanted to, through my analysis, show which questions regarding sustainable development that an ecocritical reading of the novel could generate. Furthermore, I wanted to discuss what potential this certain novel and the dystopic genre in general could have for teaching in the subject of Swedish.  The results showed that there are, in an ecocritical reading of the novel, room for interpretations that highlights all of the three main areas that Skolverket describes as integral parts of sustainable development. In other words, the evidence suggests that there are possibilities to open up for discussions regarding sustainable development from ecocritical readings of the novel.

<p>This dissertation, titled “Uncertainty Discourse: Climate Models, Gender, and Environmental Literature in the Anthropocene,” takes a feminist approach to sustainability through the lens of climate science and English-language environmental fiction. I diagnose the appearance of what I call a discourse of uncertainty, which describes new constitutions of thought and social organization emerging in response to the structural uncertainties that characterize climate change. I root this discourse in the scientific practice of climate modeling, by which scientists calculate the probability, or degrees of uncertainty, of future weather scenarios. Though climate models inform socio-political preparations for a climate-changed future, their utility has gone unheeded in the humanities. I fill this gap by placing scientific and literary depictions of uncertainty into conversation to explore their epistemological and ethical implications for a climate-changing future through issues such as gender and representation, politics and sustainability, and knowledge and time. I not only trace how uncertainty is manifested in contemporary environmental literature, such as Ian McEwan’s <i>Solar</i> (2010) and Barbara Kingsolver’s <i>Flight Behavior </i>(2012), but also consider the drama of South Asian women playwrights alongside the works of feminist scholars, philosophers, and activists.</p>