Cult I: Ecology, Social Trauma, and Rhizomatic Care

Currently, the planet is fractured with multiple forms of crises like ecological, physical, psychological, emotional, economic, and various others, triggered by physical wars, bio wars, data wars, climate wars, etc. On the one side, these wars evolved in separate cultural, social, economic, and geopolitical concepts. Conversely, their inter-relationalities regarding their traumatic impacts on societies, environments, cultures, human-more-than-human assemblages, and general well-being cannot be ignored. Scholars and policymakers worldwide have been brainstorming for years to find suitable pathways to come out of these challenges. However, the results are not very encouraging. Irrespective of signing innumerable pacts, producing bluebooks, and undertaking pledges, the ground realities of hatred, destruction, fear, displacements, incarcerations, and trauma of humans and more-than-humans remain unchanged. Over six lectures, this short course looks forward to engaging with theories, methodologies, and praxis intersectional and intertwined patterns that address the factors and possibilities of countering the incessantly rising ecological and social traumas through weaving narratives of rhizomatic care.