Research Summary
Converging global crises, such as climate change, species extinction and pandemics, are putting the survival of Earth’s ecosystems and life forms—including humans—at risk. What are the best ways to ensure our collective survival? As Canada Research Chair in Global Political Ecology, Dr. Audra Mitchell is working to answer this question.
Most responses to the threat of human extinction from academia, politics and popular culture have been rooted in oppressive logics, such as colonialism, racism, ableism and eugenics. In contrast, Mitchell’s research program weaves together insights from environmental justice, disability justice and abolition to map out just and diverse paths to collective survival. She and her research team are producing critical theoretical frameworks for the analysis of ecological-social crises and articulating concrete alternative models of collective survival.