THE GENERATIVE POWER OF DISTURBANCE IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE AND OUR PLANET

This women-led presentation will discuss disturbance and how it relates to ecosystems, cultures and our bodies. Disruption is defined as the interruption of a settled state, of healthy functioning, a breakdown. Disturbances are unpredictable yet ubiquitous elements in our lives and in our landscapes. We tend to frame them as negative elements, and this negativity is reflected in the language we use to describe them: catastrophic hurricanes, devastating earthquakes, debilitating accidents and disease. But disturbance can also provide portals for changes in the ways we perceive and interact with ourselves and with others, which can offer windows into ways of being — altered states that would be impossible without disturbance.

Each of the three speakers is a National Geographic Explorer and has had intimate personal and professional experiences with disturbances. Nalini Nadkarni survived a five-story fall to the forest floor from the top of a tree in the Pacific Northwest. We learn how during her own recovery, she drew insight and parallels from ecosystem dynamics, neuroscience research, traffic engineering, refugee studies and nature itself. Marine biologist Tierney Thys uses humor to shift debilitating negative energy into a more positive, motivating framework that has helped her focus her global conservation efforts to reduce toxic pollutants in our environments. Medical anthropologist and Buddhist chaplain Carroll Dunham describes how a massive earthquake in her home in Nepal has led to renewed cultural appreciation and a flourishing of skills in the art of temple-building.

Includes the short film, Is Cancer Right For You? and the film Between Earth & Sky (page 43).