Blog

Welcome to the new Yale Forum Blog!

We will be sharing a variety of original content including interviews, reviews, reports from the field, new and enhanced resources on the Forum website, content from our new video podcast series, FORE Spotlights, and much more. 

Check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new content. 

August 26, 2021

On September 18 at 1pm EST, the Yale Forest Forum will host an online conversation in honor of the publication of Orion Magazine's new book, Old Growth.

The speakers will be Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass), Robert Macfarlane (The Lost Words), and David Haskell (The Songs of Trees), and Mary Evelyn Tucker of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology will be facilitating the conversation. 
 

From the event site:
In August 2021, Orion Magazine released Old Growth, an...

August 23, 2021

This week’s episode of Spotlights is another short clip from our episode featuring Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, PhD, Director of Inter-religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, Canada. In this clip, Rabbi Laura talks about the symbolic meaning of donkeys in...

August 19, 2021

In 2020, UNEP’s Faith for Earth Initiative, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, United Religions Initiative, and Bhumi Global published a report to celebrate the five year anniversary of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The report featured data they had collected on faith-based organizations around the world doing work that fell within the scope of the environmental SDGs. 

Only a fraction of the collected data was used in the written...

August 16, 2021

This week’s episode of Spotlights is a short clip from our episode featuring Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, PhD, Director of Inter-religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, Canada. Reflecting on her book, Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals (Wipf & Stock, 2021), she discusses questions of anthropocentrism, the ethical treatment of animals, and the order of creation.

You can watch the clip below or listen to it...

August 12, 2021

Today, we want to highlight the Climate Anticipation Project by Chris Fici. 

From the project site:
The Climate Anticipation Project gathers existent and emerging anticipatory communities into networks of anticipation for the hard seasons ahead. The Climate Anticipation Project connects anticipatory communities across the spectrum of spirituality, ecological justice, and regenerative ecology.

The practice of Anticipation is...

August 9, 2021

This week’s episode of Spotlights features Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, PhD, Director of Inter-religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, Canada. She discusses her professional and personal engagement in the intersection of religion and ecology, with particular attention to her newly released book, Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals (Wipf & Stock, 2021). She provides a fresh, insightful, and accessible interpretation of humans, sheep, corvids, locusts, donkeys, and...

August 5, 2021


 

Today, we're shining a spotlight on an upcoming conference: Sacred Wisdom, Sacred Earth: Centering Indigenous Knowledge for Future Generations being hosted by the Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the International Mayan League. This virtual event will be held online from August 9-11 and is free and open to the general public. 
 

From the event site:
The convening brings together and centers Indigenous speakers and moderators from a variety of...

August 2, 2021

This week's episode of Spotlights is a remix of previous interviews with guests who have written books that explore religious perspectives on climate change. First, we hear from Andreas Karelas, executive director of RE-volv — a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to invest in solar energy — and author of Climate Courage: How Tackling Climate Change Can Build Community, Transform the Economy, and Bridge the Political Divide in America (Beacon Press, 2020). The next guest is David...

July 29, 2021

The United Nations commemoration of the 2021 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples will be held online on Monday August 9 from 9-11am EST. This year's theme is: “Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples and the call for a new social contract.” 
 

From the event site:
On 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided, in its resolution 49/214, that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9...

July 26, 2021

This week's episode of Spotlights features clips from three scholars of Hinduism and ecology, each of whom has a recently published book on that topic. First, we hear from Vijaya Nagarajan, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and in the Program of Environmental Studies at the University of San Francisco. She talks about her book, Feeding a Thousand Souls: Women, Ritual and Ecology in India — An Exploration of the Kōlam (Oxford University Press, 2018). Second,...