Hosted by the Graduate Program in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion

at the California Institute of Integral Studies

June 13 from 6:30 – 7:30 PM PDT

via Zoom 
 https://ciis.zoom.us/j/92319686588

Chantal Noa Forbes, Ph.D. is a comparative cultural, film, and religious studies scholar whose academic interests explore the impact of multispecies ontology on our relationships to land and place. Chantal’s research interests center on cosmological and ritual expressions of ontological ambiguity between humans and other-than-human beings in place. This is evident in her doctoral work in Philosophy and Religion with a focus on Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her dissertation, titled The Primal Metaphysics of Becoming-Animal during the Chasing Hunt in the Kalahari Desert, explores Indigenous and decolonial approaches to environmental engagement, focusing on the ontological ambiguity of human-animal relationships in hunter-gatherer cosmology in southern Africa. Chantal is also the co-founder of the religion and ecology educational non-profit, the Deep-Water Initiative.

Laura Pustarfi, Ph.D. is a writer, creative, and integral ecologist. Her scholarly work is at the intersection of philosophy, ecology, and religion, and she is adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies in Philosophy and Religion. She completed her doctoral work in Philosophy and Religion with a focus on Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2019. Her dissertation, Arboreality: Revisioning Trees in the Western Paradigm, examines trees and plants in Western thought with particular focus on philosophical literature in order to explore an arboreal and vegetal ontology and ethics that respects plants themselves. Her interests include plant studies, integral ecology, and environmental humanities, especially environmental philosophy, eco-phenomenology, and religion and ecology. She also has an enduring interest in the arts. Her professional background is events and project management, research, analysis, and writing in both business and non-profit organizations. She currently works as the Associate Director for the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research Certificate Program at CIIS where she is responsible for the administration of the certificate program training mental health professionals in the field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.