Synthesis of the 2024 Symposium of the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy
The 2024 symposium of the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy took place online on November 21-22, 2024, under the theme “Rivers and Mountains in Asian Environmental Philosophies”. It gathered eighteen presenters and discussants with stories from China, Myanmar, India, Vietnam, Japan and Pakistan, as well as an audience of over 110 registered participants (between 10-27 participants in each session). Members of the organization team mainly from India, Japan and The Philippines served as moderators.
On the first day of the symposium, we had three main sessions on rivers, mountains and animism. Rivers and their waters were described as living. They can die (for instance due to dams), they can “climb mountains” through the water cycles. Rivers are used to express emotions, values and grievances. They are both connections (e.g. transportation) and boundaries. They are the “heartbeats of social life”. If we learn to listen to them, rivers tell stories about love, myths, revolution, power struggles and deities. All presentations that focused on rivers also mentioned the water systems beyond the rivers, as well as the mountains. From the presentations and discussions, it seems that mountains tend to be usually associated with forests in environmental philosophies in Asia. In many stories, spirits guide people in rivers and mountains. These spirits and gods can be killed by pollution, for example. Mountains and trees can be a connection between the heavens and the earth, and rivers pathways to other worlds. These exchanges fed the evening roundtable on animism that revolved a lot around the question:
“What does it mean when we say rivers and their waters are “living”?“
The second day started with a fascinating multilingual (Chinese-English) panel organized by Shan Gao on mountains in Chinese landscape paintings. Three main dimensions were mentioned: the three distance, imitation of shapes, and seclusion (e.g. finding solitude in nature). Beauty and emotions in relationship with mountains were discussed, along more political dimensions in the representation of mountains, such as patriotism. This discussion echoes another presentation on San-shui-hua in Japan, which described how this art form is more about capturing “Qi” (Ki, 気) rather than an accurate representation of existing landscapes. Finally, two sessions on Friday explored ecofeminism in arts and literature, especially in relation to rivers and water bodies. Art-based research was discussed in relation to healing and deeper emotions.
The opening and closing sessions of the symposium created spaces to have an open dialogue on NAEP’s past and future activities. NAEP 2019-2024 activities include three online symposiums (on the Diversity of Environmental Philosophies in Asia in 2022, and on Plants & animals in 2023), series of videos, and two collective peer-reviewed papers. Some presentations from past symposiums were published online in a series of videos with the permission of the presenters and the work of Romaric Jannel. The first NAEP’s collective paper was titled “Exploring the diversity of conceptualizations of nature in East and South-East Asia” (2022). The second peer-reviewed collective paper was under the theme of Eco-orientalism and Ecological Nationalisms (2024). Future avenues for collaboration were evoked, including co-edited books and a collective research project, inspired by the discussions on rivers and mountains in this 2024 symposium.
Program and booklet 2024 – Mountains & Rivers
Dates: November 21-22 (no fee, participation is free)
Theme: Rivers and mountains in environmental philosophies in Asia
Rivers are flowing, ever-changing and becoming.
Mountains tend to be represented as more static aspects of local historical, cultural and natural landscapes.
Rivers and mountains are at the heart of many environmental philosophies in Asia, across different cultures, traditions and practices. Environmental philosophy explores the ways we relate to nature, framed by cultural worldviews and imaginaries, and nourished by local practices. The diversity of environmental philosophies could offer toolboxes to adapt or cope with the environmental crisis, from climate change and biodiversity loss to pollution. This symposium aims to create opportunities to learn from each other on the diversity of environmental philosophies in Asia to foster dialogue towards sustainable pathways.
Organisation: Orika Komatsubara, Laÿna Droz, Dipanwita Pal, Concordia Marie Lagasca-Hiloma, Romaric Jannel, Spriha Roy, Tekla Nanuashvili, Felipe Cuervo.
Tentative program (version October 2024)
Tentative booklet of abstracts (version October 2024)
Call for Papers – Closed!
The 2024 Online Symposium of the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy
Dates: November 21-22 (no fee, participation is free)
Theme: Rivers and mountains in environmental philosophies in Asia
Rivers are flowing, ever-changing and becoming.
Mountains tend to be represented as more static aspects of local historical, cultural and natural landscapes.
Rivers and mountains are at the heart of many environmental philosophies in Asia, across different cultures, traditions and practices. Environmental philosophy explores the ways we relate to nature, framed by cultural worldviews and imaginaries, and nourished by local practices. The diversity of environmental philosophies could offer toolboxes to adapt or cope with the environmental crisis, from climate change and biodiversity loss to pollution. This symposium aims to create opportunities to learn from each other on the diversity of environmental philosophies in Asia to foster dialogue towards sustainable pathways.
The NAEP 2024 Online Symposium welcomes contributions from scholars, practitioners and stakeholders on a broad range of aspects within Asian worldviews, including but not limited to:
- Ethical and educational dimensions of our relationship with the natural world
- Artistic expressions (narratives, artforms, storytelling…) related to rivers and mountains
- Spiritual and religious beliefs connected to rivers and mountains
- Biocultural heritage and bioregionalism
- Ecofeminism
- Grassroot perspectives and environmental practices related to mountains and rivers
Early- and mid-career scholars are especially encouraged to send proposals.
We welcome abstracts for individual presentations, panels, online posters and workshop proposals. Please submit your 200-250 words abstract by email to asiaenviphilo@gmail.com, including your name, affiliation and contact information, by July 31st, 2024.
Language: The primary language of the conference is English. We aim to be non-native friendly, so we make it a rule that we speak slow and accessible English. If you would like to present in a language other than English, please contact us.
Organisation: Orika Komatsubara, Laÿna Droz, Dipanwita Pal, Concordia Marie Lagasca-Hiloma, Romaric Jannel, Spriha Roy, Tekla Nanuashvili, Felipe Cuervo.
About the Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy (NAEP)
The Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy (NAEP) was founded by a group of scholars in the field of environmental philosophy in Asia in 2019 with the goal to supportworks related to environmental philosophy within Asian traditions of thoughts broadly conceived or related to grassroots perspectives on environmental issues in Asia. Visit our website: www.asiaenviphilo.com
Network of Asian Environmental Philosophy 