The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation
Open Menu

2020 Grant Awards

The “Rights of Nature” in Times of Conflict and Transition

  • Kristina Lyons
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • First-Year Seminar Grant
  • How to Apply
  • Browse Grant Awards

In less than half a decade, the idea that “nature” possesses inalienable rights akin to human rights has gone from a strictly theoretical concept to the basis of policy changes in several countries and U.S. municipalities. This first-year seminar will introduce students to current legal, political, ethical, and practical debates about the implementation and impacts of granting “rights to nature” in these different contexts. We will begin by examining how the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) supported citizens of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania to write the world’s first local “rights of nature” ordinance. We will then go on to compare the politics of “rights of nature” cases in Ecuador, New Zealand, India, and Colombia. We will pay particular attention to the way biocentric constitutional moves may transform concepts and understandings of environmental justice and socio-environmental conflicts. In particular, how the recognition of “nature” as a victim of war may transform understandings of violence, and hence, approaches to constructing peace and engaging and reparative and restorative practices within the larger framework of planetary and community efforts to mitigate climate change. Lastly, we will explore the possibilities and tensions between community decision-making, the “rights of nature,” and national level policies regarding the intensification of extractive activities and questions of territorial ordinance.

  • 2020
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • First-Year Seminar
  • Teaching Art Grant

Back to Grant Awards

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation

John McInerney (he/him)
Executive Director
215-573-0874
mcinernj@upenn.edu

Chloe Reison (she/her)
Associate Director
215-573-2159
reison@upenn.edu

Tamara Suber (she/her)
Executive Coordinator of Grants and Community and Equity Strategies
215-898-0608
suber@upenn.edu

The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is located on the Upper Mezzanine of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

3680 Walnut Street
Philadelphia PA

Sign Up for Our Newsletter
Follow Us @sachsartsphilly

 Facebook Instagram Twitter

Browse the Website
  • Grants
  • Happenings
  • News
  • Resources
  • Spaces & Places
  • About
Report accessibility issues and get help
Copyright © 2023 The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation
  • Grants
  • Happenings
  • News
  • Resources
  • Spaces & Places
  • About
Close Menu.