“What absolutely inspires me is the total dedication of our students to improving the quality of life on Earth, to creating a more just, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable community of humans and non-humans.”
Elizabeth Allison, founding chair of the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion (ESR) program at CIIS, is an environmental social scientist, active researcher, and dedicated educator whose work examines causes and consequences of ecological degradation in the context of religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions.
#EarthMonth #Environmentalist #Ecology #IntegralEducation #DiscoverCIIS
Want to join a new generation of activists, scholars, and leaders? Learn the necessary skills and insight to transform practices and cultivate a just, sustainable, flourishing future.
"Those students who come to this program will find an opportunity and an invitation for connection.”-Laura Pustarfi Adjunct Professor, Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion
About our program:
The CIIS field of Ecology and Religion aligns the power of religions and spiritual traditions to address our global ecological crisis through a purpose-driven lens of love, compassion, justice, and community. The unique curriculum explores traditional cultures and emerging worldviews within a critically-informed methodological framework in order to help students understand, articulate, and address ecological trauma and transformation.
#Ecology #IntegralEducation #GradSchool #DiscoverCIIS
@ciis_sf graduate course cross-listed between @anthciis and @ciis_ecospirit Swipe for book images!
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Political Ecology (3 credits)
Course description:
“In the last century we have entered a period of unprecedented environmental transformations leading to what many scholars believe is the biosphere on the brink. In this landscape of uncertainty and change, heated debates over environmental conservation, land use, and livelihoods dominate the contemporary socio-political arena. This course explores political ecology as an interdisciplinary approach to understanding socio-ecological processes of change. We start with an examination of the political stakes and dynamics of environmental access, management, and transformation. Through critiques of scholars and communities, we will challenge understandings of nature, resource use and degradation that have resulted as a consequence of colonialism and uneven capitalist development. The class will pay particular attention to political ecologies of our increasingly urbanized world, asking the questions: where does society end and nature begin? And, how are movements and communities reframing and constructing socio-natures in resistance? In so doing, our intention is to arrive at Paul Robbins’ conclusion in Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction (2012) that politics is inevitably ecological and ecology is inherently political.”
Graduate course cross-listed between @anthciis and @ciis_ecospirit departments at @ciis_sf Swipe for some book images!
Full title and course description:
ANTH-6106 Living Politics of Water (3 units)
In this seminar we study struggles over access to water in the context of contamination from extractive
industries, pollution from industrial processes, climate change and privatization. Struggles over water also
include contestations over the meaning of water as a resource, a commons, a commodity, a human right, a living organism, sacred meanings embedded within worldviews which animate specific policy strategies, anti-capitalist tactics and indigenous resistances. We will learn about and from different social movements such as the Cochabamba Water Wars against privatization in Bolivia, struggles for access to water not contaminated by radioactive waste in Dine and Laguna Pueblo territories in the Southwest region of the US, opposition to the Narmada Valley Sardar Sarovar Big Dam Project in India, and others. We will also consider technologies such as the ancient qanat system of underground irrigation in Iran, Balinese water temples, and other technologies of living with waterways.
💧 Enjoy this brief snippet from our 2025 Religion and Ecology Summit. This panel is titled, “The Power of Water in Religious Networks and Creation.”
💧 “This panel brings together theologians, anthropologists, and scholars of religion to explore how water shapes sacred narratives, spiritual practices, and ecological wisdom across traditions. Together, these voices offer a powerful reflection on how water flows through religion, culture, and creation.”
💧 Speaking: Rabbi Dr. Ariel Mayse Stanford University “The Headwaters of Theology: Reflections on Water in Jewish Law and Thought”
🌊 Check out this brief clip from our 2025 Religion and Ecology Summit.
🌊 This panel was titled, “Rivers and the Rights of Nature.” Framed within Indigenous worldviews and contemporary legal efforts, the conversation highlights how rivers are understood not simply as bodies of water, but as living relatives deserving respect and protection.
🌊 Panelists include Chief Anne Richardson (Rappahannock Tribe), Frank Bibeau (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe and Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights), Dr. Crystal Cavalier (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and 7 Directions of Service), and Talia Landry (Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe). Their discussion weaves together traditional knowledge, legal activism, and ecological reverence, aligning with Earth Day celebrations and the 24th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Together, they call for a renewed sense of responsibility, respect, and legal recognition for the sacred waterways that sustain life. 🌊 Check out the full clip on our YouTube channel.
🌳 Meet ESR’s diverse interdisciplinary faculty, part two! Have you taken courses with our faculty members before? We’d love for you to share your favorite memories below ⬇️
🌳 Meet ESR’s diverse interdisciplinary faculty, part one! Have you taken courses with our faculty members before? We’d love for you to share your favorite memories below ⬇️
🌲 Our Integrative Seminar is a culminating part of our MA students’ degree. This is a capstone project that culminates in the MA Symposium, featured in this post. Here we have a snippet from Tami Codianne-Miller’s work, “Reimagining the World: One Home at a Time.” Check out our YouTube channel to see the full clip. Enjoy! 🌲
