Catastrophe and Storytelling: Climate Change and Sacred Groves

In his most recent book, Climate Change and the Art of Devotion, Ray shows how a site-specific and ecologically grounded theology emerged in northern India in the wake of the Little Ice Age (ca. 1550 - 1850), an epoch marked by climatic catastrophes across the globe. His interests dovetail in unexpected and compelling ways with Mukherjee’s visionary and captivating recent work, which positions the banyan tree as a meeting point between ecology and culture.

Their conversation will be a fascinating inquiry into the relationship between nature and the sacred and the rise of the Anthropocene era over the last several centuries of human civilization.

Speakers: Sugata Ray, UC Berkeley; Ranu Mukherjee, Artist