名古屋高等教育研究

第 24 号 （2024）

FeatureHigher Education Futures Beyond the
Anthropocene: Mobilizing the Powerof Science, Art, and Imagination
Iveta SILOVA**
Received: 22 January 2024 / Accepted: 25 January 2024

＜Abstract＞
The multifaceted nature of the ecological crises cannot be solved
through research solely focused on technoscientific solutions, but
requires a critical interrogation of underlying assumptions about culture,
education, and social change. Drawing on decolonial and ecofeminist
critique, this article starts with a discussion of the current global climate
inertia and the way higher education institutions are implicated in thestatus quo. It then considers whether and how the current
modern/colonial higher education system could be reimagined ‒ andreconfigured ‒ to stimulate a cultural shift toward planetary
sustainability. What is the role and responsibility of higher education in
fostering the critical imagination necessary for cultural transformationin the face of the Anthropocene? How can we mobilize the power ofscience, art, and imagination in responding to the climate emergency?
How can we reshape the relationship between higher education andplanetary sustainability in ways that effectively integrate different
knowledge ecosystems, bridge the research-practice divide, andprioritize planetary wellbeing? The article concludes with a mini casestudy of Arizona State University to illustrate both the challenges andopportunities, as well as contradictions and complexities, inreconfiguring the modern/colonial structures as we begin reimagining
higher education futures beyond the Anthropocene.

Professor, Arizona State University51

1．Introduction
Discussions about the futures of higher education have intensified withthe cascading crises related to global pandemics, climate change,
biodiversity loss, economic precarity, social fragmentation, ongoing wars
and military conflicts, and more. From the United Nations to universities,
various stakeholders have actively engaged in the process of reexamining
the role and responsibility of higher education in addressing these crises.
In this context, Nagoya University’s 25th anniversary symposium“Connecting Higher Education Research and Practice: What We Can Do in
the Next Quarter Century,” along with this special issue, offer a unique
opportunity to explore the futures of higher education and its researchfrom multiple perspectives, reflecting an urgent need for ongoinginternational, interdisciplinary, and collaborative dialogues.
While the discussion about the futures of higher education could beapproached from different angles (see, for example, UNESCO 2021a, 2021b),
I would like to focus on the role and responsibility of higher education in
the context of the Anthropocene, i.e. the most recent period in Earth’s
history in which humans have fundamentally altered the planet’s geo- andbiospheric systems, transgressing planetary boundaries and threatening
the future of life on Earth (Crutzen 2002, Steffen et al. 2007, Richardson etal. 2023).1) Recognizing the limitations of the term, including the fact thatthe so-called “Age of Man” is not only enacted differently but also has
vastly differential effects across times, places, and bodies, I use it here to
draw attention to the disastrous effects of global ecological crises and as
an invitation to broaden both our imagination and our methodological andtheoretical toolkits (see Mathews 2020). This includes bringing into focus−
and into dialogue−important reconfigurations of the term Anthropocene
such as Capitalocene (Moore 2016), Chthulucene (Haraway 2016), andPlantationocene (Haraway and Tsing 2019), among others. Collectively,
these various critiques call for an urgent reconfiguration of dominant
epistemological, ontological, and ethical investments in universality, human
exceptionalism, (neo)liberal individualism, and mastery−the core conceptsof Western philosophy and the foundations of modern political economy−52

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

as a single vision for surviving on a damaged Earth (Haraway 2016, CIES
2020, Silova 2021, Stein et al. 2023, Bozalek and Zembylas 2023, Zembylas
2018). More importantly, these critiques bring into focus alternative
trajectories of planetary futures.
The focus on futures in the plural is intentional. As noted in the
UNESCO’s report Reimagining Our Futures Together (UNESCO 2021a), it
is important to recognize that “there are multiple possible future scenarios,
ranging from radical transformation to profound crisis” (UNESCO 2021a: 8).
Thinking about futures in the plural therefore allows us “to frame thepresent differently, to identify trajectories that might be emerging andattend to possibilities that might be opening or closing to us” (UNESCO
2021a: 8). Importantly, thinking about futures in the plural (always
interconnected with multiple pasts and presents) deeply resonates withdecolonial research and practice that acknowledge the existence of multiple
temporalities, knowledge traditions, and ways of being (Mignolo 2021,
Viveiros de Castro 2017, Yusoff 2018). It speaks against the hegemonic ideaof “One World made from one world” − the capitalist, patriarchal, andcolonial globalized world − gesturing toward “a world in which many
worlds coexist” or the pluriverse (Escobar 2020: 9, see also a Gesturing
Toward Decolonial Futures Collective 2020, Amsler and Facer 2017).
Emphasizing the plurality of possible future trajectories thus opens uptransformative spaces from which novel reconfigurations of higher
education could emerge to help us face and respond to the cascading effectsof the planetary crisis.
The central concern of this article then is to explore what this planetarycrisis−and its political, economic, social, and environmental consequences−entail for higher education. In particular, how should higher education
respond to the world of shifting planetary boundaries, collapsing
ecosystems, and emerging visions? How can we mobilize the power ofscience, art, and imagination to challenge the status quo and contribute tomore sustainable planetary futures? And how can we maximize the impactof our research on policy and practice? Drawing on decolonial andecofeminist critique, this article starts with a discussion of the current
global climate inertia and the way higher education institutions are53

implicated in the status quo. It then discusses whether and how the current
modern/colonial higher education system could be reimagined − andreconfigured−as a way to stimulate a cultural shift toward planetary
sustainability. The article concludes with a mini case study of Arizona State
University (ASU) to illustrate both the challenges and opportunities, as wellas the contradictions and complexities, in reconfiguring the modern/colonial
structures as we begin reimagining higher education futures beyond the
Anthropocene.

2 ． Higher Education in the Anthropocene: Solution and/or
Problem?
Higher education institutions are at the center of global sustainability
debates. As Tristan McCowan et al. (2021) outline, universities are “thelocation of much of the science that identifies the patterns in the changing
climate, its causes and possible solutions,” as well as one of the key
mechanisms for transforming not only individual attitudes and behaviors,
but also the political, economic, and cultural structures on both the local
and global scale (McCowan 2021: 14). Furthermore, universities increasingly
assume the role in public service and engagement work, aiming to adapt
scientific knowledge to local contexts and promote use-inspired scholarshipfor sustainability. Despite the mounting scientific evidence about global
warming produced in universities − accompanied by the growing
knowledge about possible mitigation options and technoscientific solutions−the global climate inertia continues as the climate emergency escalates(see Cook et al. 2016, IPCC 2018, IPCC 2023, see also Meadows et al. 1972,
Turner 2008, 2012).2) There seems to be a clear disconnect between thegrowing scientific knowledge about the climate crisis and the failure tomobilize the power of this knowledge for social change.
Going beyond their traditional roles of academic knowledge production,scholars across disciplines−from sciences to environmental humanities−
have been engaging in advocacy and public mobilization by issuing multiple
warnings about the need for immediate “bold and drastic” action, and aradical transformation of our policies, practices, and lifestyles (see Ripple

54

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

et al. 2017 and 2020, see also Hartman and Oppermann 2020). To elevatethe level of urgency, some climate scientists are choosing to boycottresearch altogether until their work is taken seriously by policymakers to
inform action; many others are leaving their labs to join climate protesters
on the streets (Zhong 2022). In parallel, students of all ages−from schools
to universities−are walking out of schools and universities to demand
concrete, social justice-oriented action by organizing school strikes, die-ins,
fossil fuel divestment campaigns, lawsuits, or launching powerful sociallyengaged art initiatives to raise awareness and mobilize public engagement
and response (Anayatova et al. 2022, Karsgaard and Shultz 2022, Stein etal. 2023, Vamvalis 2023).
Despite the growing urgency to act, the common responses across expert
communities and the general public tend to fall too readily into defeatism,
cynicism, and self-fulfilling predictions (Haraway 2016, Lamb et al. 2020).
For example, some responses reflect an almost apocalyptic “game over, toolate” attitude,

suggesting that any actions we take are “too little, too late”

and instead resorting to “doomism” or surrendering “our fate to ‘God’s
hands’” (Lamb et al. 2020: 5). Others continue to call for more research andeducation, hoping that the problem will be solved eventually as long as we
wait patiently (and work harder) for more innovative techno-scientificsolutions or better geoengineering fixes. Yet others redirect responsibility
elsewhere, narrowing the action space to personal consumption choices (e.g.
buying electric cars, recycling, etc.) while obscuring the role of powerfulorganizations in driving fossil fuel emissions and diverting attention awayfrom system change (Lamb et al. 2020). Still others warn of the downsides
of climate action, suggesting that any drastic change (e.g. abandoning fossil
fuels) would carry an even greater burden for society (e.g. slowing down
economic growth or causing unemployment). Combined, these various
logics of climate inaction (and delay) reflect the power of the status quo
used to downplay or discount the need for action. In this context, Donna
Haraway (2016) asks,

55

How can we think in times of urgencies without the self-indulgent
and self-fulfilling myths of apocalypse, when every fiber of our being
is interlaced, even complicit, in the webs of processes that must
somehow be engaged and repatterned? (Haraway 2016: 35)
These processes entail, first and foremost, the repatterning of themodern/colonial system and the institutions that support it, including thehigher education system. This starts with acknowledging that modern
higher education, and the dominant forms of modern(ist) education more
broadly, are deeply implicated in the planetary crisis we face. As Orr (2004)
noted decades ago, “The conventional wisdom holds that all education isgood, and the more of it one has, the better” (p.6). Yet, many scholars haveconvincingly argued−and empirically demonstrated−that the dominant
forms of modern education, including higher education, contribute toplanetary unsustainability rather than alleviate it (Stein et al. 2023, Bozalek
and Zembylas 2023, McCowen 2023, Silova 2021, Common Worlds ResearchCollective 2020, Komatsu, Rappleye and Silova 2020, Silova, Komatsu andRappleye 2019, Orr 2004, 2009, Bowers 1995, 2002, Schumacher 1973).
Drawing on critique that spans decolonial, indigenous, and ecofeminist
scholarship, I will briefly outline some of the ways in which higher
education contributes to the planetary crisis, as well as to the global climate
inertia and resistance to change, followed by a discussion of the efforts
aimed at repatterning higher education otherwise.
First, it is necessary to acknowledge that modern higher education has
deep roots in modernity/coloniality, stemming from the European
Renaissance and European colonial expansion wherein the accumulation ofland and money went hand in hand with the accumulation of meaning andknowledge (Tlostanova and Mignolo 2012). In North America, universities’complicity in the modern/colonial system is directly linked to their role inthe dispossession of indigenous lands and peoples, as well as slavery andracism (Stein 2022, Fuentes and White 2016, Wilder 2013, Grosfoguel 2013).
For example, Wilder’s (2013) archival research about the history of the first
five colleges in the British American colonies demonstrates how
universities acted as “instruments of Christian expansionism, weapons for56

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

the conquest of indigenous peoples, and major beneficiaries of the Africanslave trade and slavery” (Wilder 2013: 17, see also Fuentes and White 2016).
These conclusions resonate with Grosfoguel’s (2013) historical andphilosophical analysis of the role of Westernized higher education in
genocides/epistemicides of the 16th century against different populations
globally, including “against Jewish and Muslim origin population in theconquest of Al-Andalus, against indigenous people in the conquest of theAmericas, against Africans kidnapped and enslaved in the Americas, andagainst women burned alive, accused of being witches in Europe”(Grosfoguel

2013:

73).

As

Grosfoguel(2013)

argues,

these

four

genocides/epistemicides are interlinked and interrelated, constituting themodern/colonial epistemic structures of Westernized university thatprivilege Western knowledge over all other knowledge traditions.
Second, there is a direct connection between the 16th century’s
genocides/epistemicides (i.e. destruction of cultures and knowledges) andthe current ecocide (i.e. the destruction of ecosystems). As documented by
ecofeminist scholars (Merchant 1980, Plumwood 1993, 2002), the dominantWestern modern(ist) thought is based on the structuring dualisms that
assert Man’s “mastery of nature.” In The Death of Nature, Carolyn
Merchant (1980) documents the major transformations in science andsociety that occurred during the 16th and 17th centuries − “fromCopernicus to Newton, from Renaissance natural magic to the mechanicalworldview, and from the breakup of feudalism to the rise of mercantile
capitalism and the nation-state” (Merchant 1980: 15-6)−tracing how thedeath of nature as a living being accelerated the domination andexploitation of both human and natural resources in the name of (Western)
progress. In Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, Val Plumwood (1993)
further extends the critique by illustrating how the established dualisms in
Western philosophy have enabled not only the domination of nature, butalso the domination of some humans over others based on race, gender, andclass. Collectively, these ecofeminist scholars argue that the Scientific
Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries further rationalized human hyperseparation from nature, giving rise to industrialization, as well as fossil fuelcharged modes of production and consumption that have pushed the Earth57

to its ecological limits.
Third, Westernized universities contribute to reproducing the culture ofhuman exceptionalism and (neo)liberal individualism on a broader scale byprioritizing curriculum and pedagogies that divide culture and nature, mind
and body, self and other, in deliberate and systematic ways (Silova 2021).
For example, student-centered learning, which has been reinscribed as acentral component of education for sustainable development (ESD) andpopularized through the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development (2005-2014), functions as one of the pedagogical mechanisms
that

reinforces

ontologicalindividualism,

further

reinforcingthehuman/nature divide and discouraging people from taking collective action(Komatsu, Rappeye, and Silova 2021, see also Bowers 2005). Furthermore,teachers and students are positioned as the agentic all-knowing subjects
and the world “out there” as the inert matter to be studied, managed, andacted upon at will (Common Worlds Research Collective 2020). Curriculum
and pedagogy endow humans with agency, reason, and rationality, while
simultaneously reducing nature to its exploitable value to benefit humans.
Even when teaching about environmental stewardship, humans arepresented as caretakers, protectors, and saviors who are responsible for amore effective management of nature as a resource for economic growthand development (Taylor 2017, Stein et al. 2023). While such curricula andpedagogical approaches may be familiar (and even comforting) to manyeducators located at universities in the Global North, they often presume
the continuity of the modern/colonial system by reproducing settler
colonial ‘saviourism’ and encouraging further investments in modern/colonial futurities (Stein et al. 2023: 988, see also Bills and Klinsky 2023,
Liboiron 2021, Tuck and Gaztambide-Fernández 2013).
Finally (although this list is far from complete), universities have been
instrumental in universalizing Western modern/colonial knowledge system
as rational and objective−being equal to and equivalent to a God-Eye view
(Boidin, Cohen, and Grosfoguel 2012). Pointing out that the canon of thoughtin the Social Sciences and Humanities is generally based on the knowledge
produced by “a few men from five countries in Western Europe”−Italy,
France, England, Germany and the USA−Grosfoguel (2013) challenges the58

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

pretension that this knowledge has “the magical effect of universal capacity,that is, their theories are supposed to be sufficient to explain thesocial/historical realities of the rest of the world” (Grosfoguel 2013: 74).
Furthermore, he points out that the modern/colonial cost of maintaining
the universal epistemic relevance of Western knowledge has been thedenial of the value−and even the existence−of other knowledge systems,
which have been systematically ignored, repressed, and sometimes entirely
erased (Grosfoguel 2013, see also Maldonado-Torres 2007, Santos 2007). This
form of “the modern uni-versity precludes other educational possibilities,
because it posits itself as uni-versal” (Stein 2019a: 149), while closing
possibilities for otherwise worlds and worldviews.
These modern/colonial foundations of higher education continue tostructure the work of Westernized universities today. Focusing on
American higher education institutions, Stein (2022) explains how
universities have been key to making lands in the United States more
profitable under capitalist logics: “...universities have trained scientists andmanagers to work in resource extraction industries and have developed
Westernscientificandindustrial

technologies

andtechniquesformaximizing products and profits” in various sectors of the economy at theexpense of social, ecological, and planetary wellbeing (Stein 2022: 131). In asimilar vein, Crow and Dabars (2023) argue that the very academic cultureof universities, which is characterized by the partitioning of academic
disciplines and the valorization of increasingly specialized and reductionist
knowledge, has led to the abandonment of “its best hope to make sense of
the holistic interdependence of humankind and the complex biogeochemical
cycles that constitute the Earth system” (Crow and Dabars 2023: 302). By
narrowly linking education’s role to fulfilling the promise of economic
growth, individual profit, and competitiveness in the global marketplace,
universities further reinforce the commitment to the normative horizon of
the Western modernity/coloniality. However, as Rappleye and Komatsu(2020) point out, there is a fatal flaw in the very intellectual logic of thisscholarly pursuit: “the resources needed to reach that horizon, long
imagined as infinite, are, in fact, finite” (Rappleye and Komatsu 2020: 204).3)
Even if universities continue to serve the status quo refusing to change,59

“this situation is not tenable in the medium or long term, either for theplanet or for the major institutions impacting it” (Escobar 2022: 198). How
then can we begin the work of radically (re)imagining and reconfiguring
higher education otherwise−beyond its modern/colonial limits, beyond the
Anthropocene?

3．Reconfiguring Higher Education Beyond the Anthropocene:
A Cultural Shift
The

processesofreconfiguring

highereducation

beyondthe

Anthropocene are ongoing, multiple, and always inevitably “messy,
dynamic, and contradictory” (Sium, Desai, and Ritskes 2012: ii). They are
happening everywhere−from within the departments and programs ofWesternized universities themselves (e.g. McKenzie, Henderson, andNxumalo 2023, Bills and Klinsky 2023, Bozalek and Zembylas 2023,
McCowan 2023, McCowan, Filho, and Brandli 2021, Stein 2019b, Stein andHare 2023) to the multitude of non-Western, indigenous higher educationand non-formal education spaces (e.g. Escobar 2022, Komatsu et al. 2022,
Daigle 2019, Tlostonova and Mignolo 2012, Boidin, Cohen, and Grosfoguel2012, Grosfunkel 2013).
As the growing number of universities begin to address the climate crisis
by upgrading their physical infrastructure, revising curricula, establishing
new sustainability offices, or redefining research priorities, their efforts
tend to focus on making universities “more sustainable while maintaining
business as usual” (Stein 2019b: 198)−or, as some describe it, “business as
usual, but greener” (Baskin 2019: 165). This is presumably because someuniversities may be attempting to address the challenge of sustainability
relying on the technological, cognitive, and behaviorist approaches−all ofwhich function to reproduce the mainstream modern/colonial culture−
rather than pursue a more radical cultural shift (Komatsu, Silova, andRappleye 2023). For example, McCowan et al. (2021) suggest that
universities tend to approach sustainability challenges as a cognitive
problem (e.g. a lack of awareness about the SDGs among communities anduniversities stakeholders), technical/logistical problem (e.g. a lack of60

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

funding and competing priorities,

poor infrastructure or inadequate space),behavioral problem (e.g. lack of skills and training, limited resources andmaterials), or a political problem (e.g. unsuitable frameworks, a lack offormal support from national bodies, and a lack of relevant recognition ofacademic staff working on local collaborations for sustainable development).
Without the more radical cultural shift that requires delinking frommodernity/coloniality, such approaches are likely to simply reproduce thevery culture that has brought about the environmental crisis itself.
Without dismissing the role of technoscientific research and innovations,the cultural shift entails a fundamental overhaul of the underlying
modern/colonial structure (i.e. culture), including its dominant logic of
human exceptionalism and (neo)liberal individualism, as well as its“profound faith in the powers of technology, the workings of a free market,
and the growth of the economy as the solution to all problems” (Meadowset al. 2004: 203, see also Klein 2014, Komatsu et al. 2019). From thisperspective, culture must not be understood as merely an inert or stable
set of beliefs or values ‘stored’ inside people but rather as patterns of sense
making materialized in actual practices, everyday lives, and societal
institutions (see Markus and Kitayama, 2010, Komatsu et al. 2019). In thiscontext, the cultural shift foregrounds the concept of self as a corecomponent of culture that affects all aspects of life, proposing that our
behavior is affected by how one conceptualizes the relationship between
self and other, including nature (Komatsu et al. 2023, White 1967, Naess1973). Deeply resonating with decolonial, ecofeminist, and Indigenous
perspectives, the cultural shift assumes a departure from modernity/
coloniality and its denial of our interdependence, relationality, andresponsibility toward each other and all beings. Furthermore, it gestures
toward pluriversality, acknowledging our interdependence with each otherand the world.
Turning inwards to make this discussion more concrete, I would like tointroduce a mini case-study of Arizona State University (ASU) to examine
its ongoing work aimed at shifting the academic culture toward planetary
sustainability, as well as to critically reflect on the complexities andcontradictions involved in this process. I chose to focus on ASU not only61

because it is the largest public university 4) in the United States and one of
the top ranking in sustainability impact measures nationally andinternationally,5) but also because it is my academic home institution. The
focus on ASU thus helps to situate myself as the author, while offering aunique opportunity to share my insider insights about the complex
processes of the university transformation toward planetary sustainability.

3.1 A Glimpse into Arizona State University’s Transformation
Trajectory
Arizona State University (ASU) is located in a place that requires asimultaneous acknowledgement of colonial legacies and climate crisis
impacts. Established in 1885, ASU is located in the Salt River Valley inArizona, on the ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the
Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh Indian Communities, who have been caring
for these lands for centuries, enabling the university to be there today.
Although the Indigenous peoples have developed deep connections with
the Sonoran Desert and the Gila River over centuries, these connections
have been severely damaged since the arrival of colonial settlers in 1881
and the industrial development that followed. In particular, the building andthe expansion of state infrastructure−especially the Arizona’s coal-energywater nexus 6)that has brought water from the Colorado River to the

expanding cities of Phoenix and Tucson−contributed to the growth of
Arizona’s population and economy, while denying Diné water claims andestablishingconditionsforfuturedispossession,

displacement,

andmarginalization of the Indigenous communities (Curley 2021, see also
Emerson and Montoya 2021, Tachine and Cabrera 2021).
Today, the Greater Phoenix area is known for being one of the least
sustainable cities in the world (Ross 2011, deBuys 2013). Phoenix is also oneof the fastest growing cities in the US, with a current population over 5
million people. At the same time, Phoenix is one of the fastest heating cities
in the world (Feld 2021), with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees
Fahrenheit (37C) for more than 100 days out of the year. Located in thedesert, Phoenix is already hot, but the heat island effect created by the62

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

built environment of the city absorbs heat, causing even higher
temperatures. Furthermore, Phoenix gets very little rainfall each year;
most of the water supply is pumped from Lake Mead, fed by the Coloradoriver over 300 miles away. And the river is drying up due to a combinationof chronic overuse of water resources and a historic drought (Partlow 2023).
Some experts say that Phoenix will be uninhabitable in a near future7) (Guidi
2023), although opinions vary (Porter and Sorensen 2023, D’Annunzio 2023).
In this context, addressing the ecological crisis and its impacts−bothlocally and on the global scale−has become one of the main priorities of
ASU. Since 2004, ASU has systematically worked toward foregrounding
sustainability in its work−creating the Global Institute of Sustainability,
launching the first School of Sustainability in the US, and deploying thelargest solar energy portfolio of any university nationally, among otherefforts.

More recently, this work has evolved into a “comprehensive,

university-based approach to ensuring a habitable planet and a future
where well-being is attainable for all humankind” (ASU n.d.). In 2020, forexample, ASU launched the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory,
an interdisciplinary hub working to mobilize research, teaching, and action
to address sustainability challenges and “to design a future in whichhumanity not only survives, but thrives” (ASU n.d.). Further advancing thismission is ASU’s Center for Planetary Health, a new research facility for
fosteringaninterdisciplinary

approachtoknowledge

generation,

collaboration, and innovation focusing on “our relationship with our world,from human origins to our global future” (ASU n.d.).
ASU’s efforts of addressing sustainability challenges are multifacetedand constantly evolving (see Boone 2022). They include substantial changes
in academic curriculum (e.g. mainstreaming sustainability throughout
curriculum, introducing new programs and even colleges/ schools 8) ), hiring
practices (e.g. increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of faculty and staff 9) ),physical infrastructure (e.g. increasing energy efficiency of new buildings
and campus retrofits, maximizing onsite solar generation 10) ), research
priorities

andpractices(e.g.

integrating

scienceandindigenous

knowledges,11) prioritizing research that directly benefits the public),
behaviors (e.g. implementing zero waste programming 12) ), partnerships (e.g.

63forging deeper relationships with the community, taking responsibility for
the wellbeing of the communities we serve), student support (e.g. focusing
on inclusion rather than exclusion, as well as improving outreach, retention
and graduation rates of indigenous students), university business practices(e.g. using services and products that are more sustainable and reusingmaterials 13) ), and other efforts aimed at university-wide transformation
toward planetary sustainability.14)
ASU stands out for explicitly identifying academic culture as an area ofurgent transformation. At the opening of ASU’s Center for Planetary
Health in the spring of 2022, President Michael Crow directly called out
modern universities−and the academic culture more broadly−as being
complicit in the planetary crisis, calling for urgent and more radical change.
Knowing that this may be perceived as “somewhat controversial,”
especially coming from a university president, he wanted his statement togo “on record”.15) The extended quotation below only captures a portion of
his speech:
We’re 2,500 years into what I call the evolution of academia fromthis little suburb of Athens called, of all things, Academia. Academia
is so original that it’s named after some farm town from 2,500 years
ago on the edge of Athens. That’s how original the idea is. That 2,500
years of evolution has brought us to the following outcomes. I want
to be clear about this for the record:
A global climate management failure. We contributed for 2,500
years heading off a path where we ended up with a failed
relationship with the natural systems on which we are dependent.
We, academia, are at least as significantly involved in that failure as
any other group.
Second, we abandoned, through the advancement of science, ourconnection to the actual planet. We heard in Randy’s flute music,“The People and the Land. The People and the Land.” Almost no one
understands that, with some exceptions, obviously. We contributedin the way that we have advanced knowledge to the abandonmentof this deep connection. All the people that came before this64

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

institution called academia were deeply connected. There was noseparation. The separation came later when we said that we needed
to understand things in different ways.
The third thing that we did was we created a hierarchy ofknowledge that prizes basic understanding above all else. I
understand how the Earth works now. Isn’t it really wonderful? And
we’re all dead. I'm glad you have your wonderful understanding of
how these things work and all the wonders of physics and all thewonders of chemistry. I’m not taking anything away from those
things. They are necessary but grossly and undeniably insufficientfor the future. We deny our interdependence on each other, theplanet and the people, the land and the people. We deny that. We
make decisions by the millions every single year, decisions after
decisions after decisions that deny the codependence and thecoevolution of our species with this living planet that we are blessed
to have come from. We focus on the individual. This is not alibertarian thing for my libertarian friends that are out there. I jokewith my libertarian friends that I’m a libertarian also. I’m just a
different libertarian. I’m not a libertarian that believes only in myown individual liberties. I believe in protecting the liberties of all thepeople that follow me, including the Earth that will be there to help
them to survive, and I want to protect those liberties also.
We have, for whatever reason, become genius idiots. We havemassive knowledge and limited understanding. We abandoned, forwhatever reason, the way in which knowledge evolved in thethousands of generations that came before modern science and thethousands of generations that came before modern academia. We
need to find a way to bring those things back together, to connect
them in new ways that we’ve not really figured out how to do. These
2,500 years of the evolution of academia, it’s been okay. A lot of greatthings have happened, but we’ve got some serious, serious issues.
(emphasis added)
The recurring reference to “The People and the Land”−which was65introduced

right

acknowledgement

beforebyPresident’s

Nataani

Crow

Hanley-Moraga

speechina(Indigenous

land

student

currently studying business at ASU) and then carried further in a beautiful
flute song by Randy Kemp (Indigenous artist and ASU alumnus) −ties
togetherthedeeplyinterconnectedchallengeof

addressing

modern/colonial legacies and planetary sustainability crisis. Through theirpowerful spoken word and music, these members of the ASU community−a business student, an artist, and an administrator−have collectively andunanimously signaled the urgency of reconfiguring the relationshipbetween people and the land as key to changing the present trajectory ofplanetary crisis, while undoing the damage that has been done. This is at
the heart of a cultural shift, which is enacted on an ongoing basis by
university faculty, students, and staff in everyday life−from classrooms
and labs to dining halls and parking spaces.
Although the wheels are now in motion, such radical cultural change isboth impressive, but also inevitably slow and incomplete. For example,
while achieving carbon neutrality six years ahead of its formal
commitments (see Tricoles 2020), ASU has not yet fully divested from fossil
fuels. According to the ASU Foundation (n.d.), the university has made no
new direct private fossil fuel commitments since 2015 and the current
investment portfolio does not hold any thermal coal companies directly.
The ASU Foundation’s (n.d.) investment strategy states that the university
has committed to “no new direct fossil fuel public or private investments,
gradually leading to the dissolution of the remaining direct fossil fuelinvestments” by 2035. This is neither fast nor radical enough for many ASU
students, faculty, and staff, who call for immediate and full divestment fromfossil fuels. Furthermore, there is a lack of investment in infrastructure to
support the reduction of travel-related carbon emissions, whether in theform of public transportation improvements (e.g. reducing the price of
public transport and increasing public transport availability) or pedestrian
and bike friendly transit options beyond campus that provide safe, efficient,and affordable routes. In this sense, the university reform is bound up with
the US (and Arizona state) political economy dictated by fossil-fuel interests(see also Adkin 2023).

66

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

On a different note, the task of (re)building relationships based oninterdependence can be especially challenging in an academic institutionthat has operated for decades under a (neo)liberal logic of competition.
“Repeatedly ranked #1 in areas that matter”−#1 in innovation, #1 insustainability, and #1 in global impact (see a recent promotional video 16) )−ASU has a complicated relationship with rankings. On the one hand, ASU
uses rankings to measure its own progress toward sustainable development
goals (SDGs), while simultaneously competing with other universities“motivated by economic interest, desires for status, and the sharing of
knowledge goods” (Marginson 2011: 35). On the other hand, it contributes
to the global data infrastructure ‒ the so-called “academic Olympics” ‒ thatsustain “the epistemic coloniality and unequal political economy of the
global higher education system” by reinforcing dominant scientificparadigms thus flattening and homogenizing institutional forms andknowledge systems that do not fit within it−including community andindigenous knowledges (Mills 2023: 475, see also see also Shahjahan et al.
2017). As many critics note, global rankings may also distract universities−and the public−from “the deep existential crisis that is at the heart ofmodern institutions and their false promises of security, progress andhappiness” (Mills 2023: 484).
Commenting on the difficult work of uprooting the modern/colonial
legacies in a Westernized university setting, some faculty members findthemselves attempting to challenge the very systems their employment
and academic identity are based on (see Bills and Klinsky 2023, Ajaps 2023).
Using a case-study of ASU’s School of Sustainability, for example, Bills andKlinsky (2023) discuss barriers related to implementing Justice-Based
Environmental Sustainability education, including individual obstacles(anxiety and discomfort) and systemic ones (university understandings ofland, progress, and power). Importantly, Bills and Klinsky (2023) highlightdifferent ways in which faculty members identify and use “cracks” in thesystem to support change, while creating spaces for critical self-reflectionthat allow university stakeholders to both recognize individual agency andrealistically assess where and how the larger system impedes changes andcould be transformed. Working across different academic units, faculty and67

students are building communities of practice to collectively identify
opportunities for transformative change and solidarity both inside andoutside the academy.
Meanwhile, the cultural shift is further catalyzed by multiple people,
projects, and academic units that challenge the status quo in the mostpowerful and imaginative ways. Among many examples is a multiyear,
multi-stakeholder Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, led by the Global
Futures Laboratory in collaboration with Ira A. Fulton Schools ofEngineering. Through this initiative, ASU works with industrial, municipal,
agricultural, tribal, and international partners “to rapidly accelerate anddeploynew

approaches

andtechnology

for

water

conservation,

augmentation, desalination, efficiency, infrastructure and reuse” (ASU
Arizona Water Innovation Initiative n.d., see also ASU 2022). The initiativeencompasses units working on technical solutions and water data
infrastructure (e.g. The Advanced Water Observatory and Decision
Support System, the Global Center for Water Technology), as well as policy
and social engagement (e.g. Impact Water−Arizona, Arizona Water for All,and Kyl Center for Water Policy). For example, “The Arizona Water forAll” program focuses on Arizona’s most water-insecure households andcommunities to improve water security and engagement in water decisionmaking using community-based participatory approaches, while The Kyl
Center for Water Policy at ASU’s Morrison Institute promotes research,
analysis, collaboration, and dialogue to build consensus on sound water
stewardship for Arizona and the West. Complementing these initiatives inimportant ways is the “Water Narratives and Societal Change” 17) projectby the Water Impact-Arizona, which brings together ASU faculty, students,
and community to explore impactful water narratives through storytellingin a variety of forms, from live music and dance performances celebratingwater to written stories, video, and photo art exploring our relationships
with water.
Furthermore, ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination 18) brings
together unlikely collaborators − writers, artists, and other creative
thinkers alongside scientists, engineers, and technologists−to (re)imagine
possible futures together. The Center’s work takes on different innovative68

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

forms, from hosting imagination salons to organizing an Imaginary College
that supports the work of “rebels, hackers, wizards, inventors, andalchemists driving pathbreaking research, teaching and outreach projects”(e.g. Margaret Atwood, Kim Stanely Robinson, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Nnedi
Okorafor, among many others), to producing and disseminating pedagogicalresources to engage the broader public in the process of imagining possible
futures. At the core of the Center’s work is a commitment to cultivating acollective sense of agency and responsibility towards the future that is both
inspiring and inclusive of diverse voices and visions (Center for Science andthe Imagination, n.d.).
Another example is a socially engaged art project that grew into a youthled movement “Turn it Around: Youth Visions of Climate Futures.”19)
Implemented by an intergenerational group of students and faculty from
ASU’s education, arts, and sustainability programs, this project was
specifically designed to crowdsource youth visions of climate futures inorder to radically reimagine the role of education and reconfigure therelationship between people and the Earth. Through this initiative, young
people from around the world were invited to respond to several prompts
asking youth to imagine ideal learning environments, share their everyday
actions that contribute to a livable future on Earth, tell why climate
education is critical for their learning, or share where they find hope andresilience in facing the uncertain future. Curated into a creative variety ofways−from a deck of flashcards to art exhibits, pedagogical materials, anda policy report−their collective visions “shift and shuffle the dominant
knowledge systems and categories” by challenging existing education
policies, practices, and patterns as no longer possible, tolerable, or eventhinkable (Anayatova et al. 2022). Furthermore, this work activates a seriesof turning points − intergenerational, decolonial, methodological, andpedagogical−in order to unlearn harmful patterns and begin relearning
how to be a part of the Earth’s ecological community.
Although it is impossible to give justice to the breadth and depth of
initiatives underway at the university, this short case-study gives a brief
insight into the complex workings of one institution toward a fundamental
cultural shift, as well as the opportunities and challenges that this process69entails. Working within the existing system to simultaneously reduce harmand mobilize ideas, people, and resources toward articulating alternatives,
ASU is a living example of an institutional metamorphosis from themodernity/coloniality cocoon. While dealing with lingering attachments tothe promises offered by modernity/coloniality (e.g. progress, sustainable
development, global competition, university rankings, etc.), it is also
creating openings for new, more viable planetary futures to emerge. Its
work is neither predictable nor complete, but fascinating to observe−andto be a part of.

4．Toward A Cultural Shift
Another university is possible; to heed this call, however, demands
from us a reimagining of possibility. The fate of human society andthe Earth is at stake. (Escobar 2022: 198)As universities worldwide mobilize efforts to respond to the planetarycrisis, we must remember that the destruction of the planet has not been
the work of ignorant people, but rather “the results of work by people with
BAs, BScs, LLBs, MBAs, and PhDs” (Orr 2004: 6) − predominantly
university graduates. Acknowledging the complicity of higher education in
the planetary crisis is therefore the first step toward articulating
alternatives and (re)imagining higher education otherwise. This process
entails facing “the limits of the system and the institutions we haveinherited” (Stein 2020) and “unlearning what imperial/colonial designs havenaturalized as the only way to know and the only way to be” (Tlostanovaand Mignolo 2012: 22)−that is, the logic of human exceptionalism and(neo)liberal individualism, the belief in infinite economic growth andprogress, the reliance on universal designs and technoscientific solutions,among others. As Prádanos (2020) notes, such higher education is “justpreparing our students for extinction, not for life” (see also Adams 1995).
Although it may be difficult to imagine higher education otherwise,“another university is possible,” but only if it is delinked from the matrix
of modernity/coloniality (Escobar 2022: 198, emphasis added; see also70

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

Tlostanova and Mignolo 2012, Boidin et al. 2012, Stein 2020, Silova, Rappleye,
and Auld 2020, Bozalek and Zembylas 2023). In fact, many alternative formsof higher education already exist despite modern/colonial efforts todisplace and eradicate them (see examples in Tlostanova and Mignolo 2012,
Sterling at al. 2018), while many others are actively in the making (forexample, the case of Arizona State University above). In this context, it isimportant to bring into focus−and into dialogue−existing and emerging
alternatives that challenge the very idea of “uni-versity” and its
investments in onto-epistemic universality, supremacy, and mastery, while
instead foregrounding “pluri-versity” that recognizes and engages withknowledge

traditions

from“across

multiple

places,culturesandcosmovisions” (Dunford 2017: 390, see also Boidin et al. 2017, Grosfoguel
2013, Stengers 2012). Taking “pluriversality” as a starting point is thus
essential

tounderstanding

and(re)learningtherelational

andinterdependent nature of self-, life-, and world-making more broadly. It isat the heart of the cultural shift toward more viable and ecologically justplanetary futures.

71

Notes1) According to Stockholm Resilience Center, six of nine planetary boundaries
have been crossed as of 2023, with the notable increase of the pressure in all
boundary processes (Richardson et al. 2023). While transgressing planetary
boundaries may not be as easily noticeable as drastic changes happening
overnight, together they mark a critical threshold for increasing risks to theplanet and people. Commenting on these findings, Rockström (quoted in
Stockholm Resilience Center 2023) warns that the combined pressures oftransgressing these key boundaries will inevitably lead to “irreversible
change and harm.”
2) In particular, some studies suggest that the world will cross the 1.5 degrees
Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) warming threshold this decade (Hansen et al. 2023),
while most scenarios under the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC 2023) envision the world breaching 1.5C during the2030s. Crossing this threshold will radically redraw the map of the world andcause irreversible changes−from species extinctions to resource shortages,
famines, and mass migrations of climate refugees on a global scale,threatening the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations
and ultimately disrupting life for everyone, everywhere.
3) See, for example, comparative education research that links education (e.g.
expressed in overall levels of cognition) to economic growth through largescale student achievement tests run by the OECD’s Programme forInternational Student Achievement (PISA) and associated with theinternational development industry (see Rappleye and Komatsu 2020). While
the validity of such claims has been recently critiqued (see Komatsu andRappleye 2017, Rappleye and Komatsu 2021), the logic of growth continues
to dominate education policy circles in both national and international
contexts.
4) As of 2023, ASU’s enrollment exceeded 145,000 students in its on-campus andonline programs combined (ASU 2023a).
5) ASU has ranked No. 1 in the United States and No. 2 in the world for its
sustainability practices by the 2023 Sustainability Tracking, Assessment &Rating System (STARS), a program run by the Association for the
Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. In addition, it has ranked#1 by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for addressing the SDGs
(Terrill 2023).
6) See Curley (2021) for a detailed discussion of three historic events related to72

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene
the Arizona’s coal‒energy‒water nexus: (1) the creation of the Colorado
Compact in 1922; (2) Congressional funding for the Central Arizona Projectin the mid-1960s; and (3) the proposed water settlements between the Stateof Arizona and the Navajo Nation in the early 2000s. The nexus included theconstruction of dams, power plants, pumping stations, and canals,
accompanied by the political compromises, evolving technologies, massive
water diversions, population displacements, and national financing − allworking together “to expand and reenforce colonial difference over space andtime” (Curley 2021: 2). The present-day inequities in socioeconomic and healthconditions, education access, and water security on the Indigenous lands
underscore the impact of settler colonialism (Emerson and Montoya 2021,
Tachine and Cabrera 2021).
7) The summer of 2023 was “a test of endurance” with the historical record of
31 consecutive days of temperatures above 110F (43C) and minimal coolingat night. In these temperatures, hiking trails were closed down and children’s
playgrounds had warning signs, reminding parents that the metal playgroundequipment is too hot to touch. In a New York Times article, one local reporter
wrote, “In triple-digit heat, monkey bars singe children’s hands, water bottles
warp and seatbelts feel like hot irons. Devoted runners strap on headlamps
to go jogging at 4 a.m., when it is still only 90F degrees, they come home
drenched in sweat and promptly roll down the sun shutters. Neighborhoods
feel like ghost towns at midday, with rumbling rooftop air-conditioners
offering the only sign of life” (Healy 2023).
8) For example, ASU has established schools and programs that directly signal
the break with the traditionally siloed academic disciplines, including the
School of Complex Adaptive Systems, School for the Future of Innovation inSociety, The School of Ocean Futures, the Center for Global Discovery andConservation Science, the Institute of Human Origins, and more.
9) For more see Terrill 2022.
10) See ASU (2022) case study on achieving carbon neutrality, including throughphysical infrastructure.
11) For example, ASU is home to over 60 Indigenous faculty. In addition tohiring practices, the university has made efforts to center Indigenous
students and faculty, as well as Indigenous ways of knowing and being in theacademy through academic programs and retention initiatives (e.g. programsin American Indian Studies, American Indian Legal Studies, and Indigenous
conceptions of justice). It is also creating spaces where indigenous wisdom
and latest techno-scientific innovations are brought together on an ongoing73

basis and in non-hierarchical ways−whether through joint interdisciplinary
projects, discussions, or institutional structures and initiatives. This work is
led by colleagues in the Office of American Indian Initiatives and Global
Futures Laboratory’s Indigenous Knowledge focal area, making invaluable
contributions toward this transformation.
12) For example, ASU’s Zero Waste initiative focuses on adapting the goods weconsume to maximize their use before sending them back into the economy
for the most productive use possible. The emphasis on food reconnection aims
to foster a strong relationship with food, knowledge of its sources, andimpacts on the health of our planet, while encouraging plant-forward diets.
For more see here: (https://cfo.asu.edu/zerowaste)13) For more on business practices and policies see: (https://sustainabilityinnovation.asu.edu/campus/what-asu-is-doing/)
14) For more, see ASU Charter: (https://www.asu.edu/about/charter-mission)15) The recording of the opening ceremony of the Center for Planetary Health,including President Crow’s comments, is available at (https://video.ibm.
com/recorded/131669750) (President’s Crow speech starting a5 15:30
minutes).
16) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpMQQ2BjYqQ)17) For more see (https://www.narrativestorytelling.org/water-narratives)18) For more see (https://csi.asu.edu/)
19) For more see (www.turnitaroundcards.org)

References
Adams, D. W., 1995, Education for Extinction: American Indians and theBoarding School Experience, University Press of Kansas.
Adkin, L. R., 2023, “Cracking Foundations, Contested Futures: Post-Secondary
Education in Alberta at the End of the Holocene”, Review of Education,
Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, [DOI: 10.1080/10714413.2023.2285652]
Ajaps, S., 2023, “Deconstructing the Constraints of Justice-Based Environmental
Sustainability in Higher Education”, Teaching in Higher Education, 28(5):1024-38. [DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2023.2198639]
Amsler, S. and K. Facer, 2017, “Contesting Anticipatory Regimes in Education:
Exploring Alternative Educational Orientations to the Future”, Futures, 94:
6-14. [DOI: 10.1016/j.futures.2017.01.00]
Anayatova, D., Basu, M., Darira, S., Freiband, A., Glanz, D., Halkiyo, A.,74

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene
Hovsepian, S., Jenik, A., Jiang, J., Komatsu, H., Kwarase, P., Law, L., Nielsen,
A., Oneill, J., Palandjian, G., Pretti, E., Rappleye, J., Sanchez, B., Silova, I.,
Tsotniashvili, K., and contributing artists, 2022, Turn it Around! An Education
Guide to Climate Futures, Arizona State University and Artists’ Literacies
Institute. [DOI: 10.14507/OGE-TiA]
ASU Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, n.d., Arizona Water Innovation
Initiative homepage. (https://azwaterinnovation.asu.edu/, 2024.1.22)
ASU Foundation, n.d., Net Zero Statement. (https://www.asufoundation.org/on/demandware.static/-/Library-Sites-RefArchSharedLibrary/default/dw
6a6fdb6c/pdfs/NetZeroStatement̲May2021.pdf, 2024.1.22)
ASU, 2020, “Achieving Carbon Neutrality at Arizona State University Case
Study”, Climate Positive. (https://www.asu.edu/usp/documents/AchievingCarbon-Neutrality-ASU-Case-Study.pdf, 2024.1.22)
ASU, 2022, “State of Arizona Taps ASU to Lead Water Innovation Initiative”,
ASU News. (https://news.asu.edu/20221117-arizona-impact-state-arizona-tapsasu-lead-water-innovation-initiative, 2024.1.22)
ASU, 2023a, “Facts and Figures”, Arizona State University: About ASU.
(https://www.asu.edu/about/facts-and-figures, 2024.1.22)
ASU, 2023b, “Rob and Melani Walton Center for Planetary Health”, ArizonaState University. (https://globalfutures.asu.edu/waltoncenter/, 2024.1.22)
ASU, n.d., “Sustainability”, Office of the President website. (https://preside
nt.asu.edu/ideas-and-issues/sustainability, 2024.1.22)
Baskin, J., 2019, “Global Justice & the Anthropocene: Reproducing a
Development Story”, F. Biermann and E. Lovbrand, eds., Anthropocene

Encounters: New Directions in Green Political Thinking, Cambridge
University Press.
Bills, H. and Klinsky, S., 2023, “The Resilience of Settler Colonialism in Higher
Education: A Case study of a Western Sustainability Department”, Teachingin Higher Education, 28(5): 969-86. [DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2023.2197111]
Boidin, C., Cohen, J., and Grosfoguel, R., 2012, “Introduction: From University toPluriversity: A Decolonial Approach to the Present Crisis of Western
Universities”, Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of SelfKnowledge, 10(1), Article 2, (http://scholarworks.umb.edu/humanarchite
cture/vol10/iss1/2, 2024.1.22)
Boone, C. G., 2022, “Sustainability Scholarship and Education: Opportunities andStrategies for Success”, Krogman, N. and Lovejoy, T. E., eds., The Future of

Sustainability Education at North American Universities, University ofAlberta Press, 45-64. [DOI: 10.1515/9781772126679-006]

75

Bowers, C. A., 1995, Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Culture:

Rethinking Moral Education, Creativity, Intelligence, and Other Modern
Orthodoxies, State University of New York.
Bowers, C. A., 2005, “Is Transformative Learning the Trojan Horse of Western
Globalization?”, Journal of Transformative Education, 3(2): 116-25.
Bowers, C., 2002, “Towards an Eco-Justice Pedagogy”, Environmental Education
Research, 8: 21-34.
Bozalek, V. and Zembylas, M., 2023, Responsibility, Privileged Irresponsibility

and Response-ability: Higher Education, Coloniality and Ecological Damage,
Palgrave Macmillan.
Center for the Science and the Imagination, n.d., “About Us”, ASU’s Center for

the Science and the Imagination website. (https://csi.asu.edu/about-us/,2024.1.22)
CIES, 2020, Education Beyond the Human: Toward Sympoiesis, Comparativeand International Education Society (CIES) Call for Papers.
Common Worlds Research Collective, 2020, “Learning to Become with theWorld: Education for Future Survival”, UNESCO Futures of Education

Initiative, UNESCO.
Cook, J., Oreskes, N., Doran, P. T., Anderegg, W. R. L., Verheggen, B., Maibach,E. W., Carlton, J. S., Lewandowsky, S., Skuce, A, G., Nuccitelli, D., Jacobs, P.,
Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Painting, R., and Rice, K., 2016, “Consensus on
Consensus: A Synthesis of Consensus Estimates on Human-Caused Global
Warming”, Environmental Research Letters, 11(4): 048002. [DOI: 10.1088/
1748-9326/11/4/048002]
Crow, M. M. and Dabars, W. B., 2023, “Academic Culture, Democracy, andClimate Change”, Orr, D., ed., Democracy in Hotter Time: Climate Change

and Democratic Transformation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 30229.
Crutzen, P., 2002, “Geology of Mankind”, Nature, 415(23), [DOI: 10.1038/ 415023a.]Curley, A., 2021, “Infrastructures as Colonial Beachheads: The Central Arizona
Project and the Taking of Navajo Resources”, Society and Space, 39(3): 387404. [DOI: 10.1177/0263775821991537]
D’Annunzio, F., 2023, “Their Arizona Community was Ideal. Then their
Neighbor Cut off the Water”, The Guardian. (https://www.theguardi
an.com/us-news/2023/jan/27/arizona-scottsdale-water-cut-off-rio-verde-foothills-drought, 2024.1.22)
Daigle, M., 2019, “The Spectacle of Reconciliation: On (the) Unsettling
Responsibilities to Indigenous Peoples in the Academy”, Environment and76

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene

Planning: Society and Space, 37(4): 703-21. [DOI: 10.1177/0263775818824342]
deBuys, W., 2013, “The Least Sustainable City: Phoenix as a Harbinger for our
Hot Future”, Grist. (https://grist.org/climate-energy/the-least-sustainablecity-phoenix-as-a-harbinger-for-our-hot-future/, 2024.1.22)
Dunford, R., 2017, “Toward a Decolonial Global Ethics”, Journal of Global Ethics,
13(3): 380-97.
Emerson, M. A. and Montoya, T., 2021, “Confronting Legacies of Structural
Racism and Settler Colonialism to Understand COVID-19 Impacts on the
Navajo Nation”, American Journal of Public Health, 111(8): 1465-9. [DOI: 10.
2105/AJPH.2021.306398]
Escobar, A., 2020, Pluriversal Politics: The Real and the Possible, Duke
University Press.
Escobar, A., 2022, “Global Higher Education in 2050: An Ontological Design
Perspective”, Critical Times, 5 (1): 183-201. {DOI: 10.1215/26410478-9536551
Feld, K., 2021, “Phoenix, AZ: The Least Sustainable City in the World”.
(https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2b88bcee697c4ca682136f10091bf434,
2024.1.22)
Fuentes, M. J. and White, D. F., 2016, Scarlet and Black: Slavery andDispossession in Rutgers History, Rutgers University Press.
Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective, 2020, “Preparing for the Endof the World as we Know it”, openDemocracy. (https://www.open democracy.
net/en/oureconomy/preparing-end-world-we-know-it/, 2024.1.22)
Grosfoguel, R., 2013, “The Structure of Knowledge in Westernized Universities:
Epistemic Racism/Sexism and the Four Genocides/Epistemicides of the Long
16th Century”, Human Architecture: Journal or the Sociology of Alef-

Knowledge, 11(1): 73-90.
Guidi, R., 2023, “When Will the Southwest Become Unlivable?”, The Atlantic.
(https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/07/heat-dome-southwest-arizona/674689/, 2024.1.22)
Hansen, J. E., Sato M., Simons, L., Nazarenko, L. S., Sangha, I., Kharecha, P.,
Zachos, J. C., von Schuckmann, K., Loeb, N. G., Osman, M. B., Jin, Q., Tselioudis,G., Jeong, E., Lacis, A., Ruedy, R., Russell, G., Cao, J., and Li, J, 2023, “Global
Warming in the Pipeline”, Oxford Open Climate Change, 3(1): kgad008. [DOI:
10.1093/oxfclm/kgad008]
Haraway, D., 2016, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene,
Duke University Press.
Haraway, D. and Tsing, A. L., 2019, “Reflections on the Plantationocene: A
Conversation

with Donna

Haraway &Anna Tsing”, Edge Effects.

77

(https://edgeeffects.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PlantationoceneRefle
ctions̲Haraway̲Tsing.pdf., 2024.1.22)
Hartman, S., and S. Oppermann, 2020, “Seeds of Transformative Change”,

Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities, 1(1): 1-18.
Healy, J., 2023, “In Phoenix, Heat Becomes a Brutal Test of Endurance”, The

New York Times. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/us/phoenix-heatwave.html, 2024.1.22)
IPCC, 2018, “Summary for Policymakers”, Global Warming of 1.5℃: An IPCC

Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5℃ above pre-industrial
levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context
of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change,sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte,V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P. R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W.
Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J. B. R. Matthews, Y. Chen,
X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield.
eds.] Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA,3-24. [DOI: 10.1017/9781009157940.001]
IPCC, 2023, “Summary for Policymakers”, Climate Change 2023: Synthesis

Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing
Team, H. Lee and J. Romero. eds., Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), Geneva, Switzerland, 1-34. [DOI: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789
291691647.001]
Karsgaard, C. and Shultz, L., 2022, “Youth Movements and Climate Change
Education for Justice”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. [DOI:
10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1808]
Klein, N., 2014, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, Simon &Schuster.
Komatsu, H. and J. Rappleye, 2017, “A New Global Policy Regime Founded on
Invalid Statistics? Hanushek, Woessman, PISA, and Economic Growth”,

Comparative Education, 53(2): 166-9.
Komatsu, H., Fu, S.-P., Lin, M.-H., Hsieh, Y.-H., Rappleye, J., and Silova, I., 2022,“Measuring the Transformation of University Students’ Self-Construal for
Greater Environmental Sustainability”, SAGE Open, 12(1). [DOI: 10.1177/
21582440221079836]
Komatsu, H., J. Rappleye, and I. Silova, 2021, “Student-Centered Learning andSustainability: Solution or Problem?”, Comparative Education Review, 65(1):
6-33.

78

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene
Komatsu, H., Rappleye, J., and Silova, I., 2020, “Will Achieving SDG4 Promote
Environmental Sustainability? Critical Reflections Looking Towards 2030”, A.
Wulff, ed., Grading Goal Four: Tensions, Threats and Opportunities in the

Sustainable Development Goal on Quality Education, Sense Publishers/Brill,297-321.
Komatsu, H., Rappleye, J., and Silova, I., 2019, “Culture and the Independent Self:
A Possible Obstacle to Environmental Sustainability”, Anthropocene, 26: 1-13.
[DOI: 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100198]
Komatsu, H., Silova, I. and Rappleye, J., 2023, “Education and Environmental
Sustainability: Culture Matters”, Journal of International Cooperation in

Education, 25(1): 108-23. [DOI: 10.1108/JICE-04-2022-0006]
Lamb, W. F., Mattioli, G., Levi, S., Roberts, J. T., Capstick, S., Creutzig, F., Minx,
J. C., Müller-Hansen, F., Culhane, T., and Steinberger, J. K., 2020, “Discoursesof Climate Delay”, Global Sustainability, 3(e17): 1-5, [DOI: 10.1017/sus.2020.13]
Liboiron, M., 2021, Pollution is Colonialism, Durham: Duke University Press.
Maldonado-Torres, N., 2007, “On the Coloniality of Being”, Cultural Studies, 21(23): 240-70.
Marginson, S., 2011, “Imagining the Global”, R. King, S. Marginson, and R. Naidoo,eds., Handbook on Globalisation and Higher Education, Cheltenham, 10-40.
Markus, H. R. and Kitayama, S., 2010, “Cultures and Selves: A Cycle of Mutual
Constitution”, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5: 420-30. [DOI: 10.11
77/1745691610375557]
Mathews, A., 2020, “Anthropology and the Anthropocene: Criticisms, Experiments, and Collaborations”, Annual Review of Anthropology, 49(1): 67-82.
McCowan, T., 2023, “The Climate Crisis as a Driver for Pedagogical Renewal
in Higher Education”, Teaching in Higher Education, 28(5): 933-52. [DOI:
10.1080/13562517.2023.2197113]
McCowan, T., Filho, W. L., and Brandli, L., 2021, Universities Facing Climate

Change and Sustainability, GUC Hamburg.
McKenzie, M., Henderson, J., and Nxumalo, F., 2023, “Climate Change and
Educational Research: Mapping Resistances and Futurities”, Research in

Education, 117(1): 3-10. [DOI: 10.1177/00345237231203073]
Meadows, D., Randers, J., and Meadows, D., 2004, The Limits to Growth: The
30-Year Update, Chelsea Green Publishing.
Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., and Behrens, W. W., 1972, The

Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on thePredicament of Mankind, Universe Books.
Merchant, C., 1980, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific79Revolution, Harper Collins.
Mignolo, W. D., 2021, The Politics of Decolonial Investigations, Duke University
Press.
Mills, D., 2022, “Decolonial Perspectives on Global Higher Education:
Disassembling Data Infrastructures, Reassembling the Field”, Oxford Reviewof Education, 48(4): 474-91. [DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2022.2072285]
Moore, J. W., 2016, Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the
Crisis of Capitalism, PM Press.
Naess, A., 1973, “The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement: A
Summary”, Inquiry, 16(1-4): 95-100. [DOI: 10.1080/00201747308601682]
Orr, D., 2004, Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human

Prospect, Island Press.
Orr, D., 2009, Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse, Oxford
University.
Partlow, J., 2023, “The Colorado River Drought Crisis: How did this Happen?
Can it Be Fixed?”, The Washington Post (February 5). (https://www.was
hingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/05/colorado-river-drought-e
xplained/#, 2024.1.22)
Plumwood, V., 1993, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, Routledge.
Plumwood, V., 2002, Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason,
Routledge.
Porter, S. and Sorensen, K., 2023, “Phoenix Is in No Danger of Running Out of
Water”, Wall Street Journal. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/phoenix-is-in-nodanger-of-running-out-of-water-9f0d3b1e?mod=hp̲opin̲pos̲5, 2024.1.22)
Prádanos, L., 2020, “How Did This Class Prepare You for Extinction?” Resilience.
(https://www.resilience.org/stories/2020-04-21/how-did-this-clas s-prepareyou-for-extinction/, 2024.1.22)
Rappleye, J. and H. Komatsu, 2020, “Towards (Comparative) Educational
Research for a Finite Future”, Comparative Education, 56(2): 190-217.
Rappleye, J. and H. Komatsu, 2021, “Is Knowledge Capital Theory Degenerate?
PIAAC, PISA, and Economic Growth”, Compare: A Journal of Comparativeand International Education, 51(2): 240-58.
Richardson, K., Steffen, W., Lucht, W., Bendtsen, J., Cornell, S. E., Donges, J. F.,
Drüke, M., Fetzer, I., Bala, G., von Bloh, W., Feulner, G., Fledler, S., Gerten, D.,
Gleeson, T., Hofmann, M., Huiskamp, W., Kummu, M., Mohan, C., NoguésBravo, D., Petri, S., Porkka, M., Rahmstorf, S., Schaphoff, S., Thonicke, K.,
Tobian, A., Virkki, V., Wang-Erlandsson, L., Weber, L., and Rockström, J., 2023,“Earth Beyond Six of Nine Planetary Boundaries”, Science Advances, 9(37).

80Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene[DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adh2458]
Ripple, W. J., Wolf, C., Newsome, T. M., Barnard, P., and Moomaw, W. R., 2020,“World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency”, BioScience, 70(1): 8-12.
Ripple, W. J., Wolf, C., Newsome, T. M., Galetti, M., Alamgir, M., Crist, E.,
Mahmoud, M. I., and Laurance, W. F., 2017, “World Scientists’ Warning to
Humanity: A Second Notice”, BioScience, 67: 1026-28.
Ross, A., 2011, Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City,
Oxford University Press.
Santos, B. S., 2007, “Beyond Abyssal Thinking: From Global Lines to Ecologies
of Knowledges”, Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 30(1): 45-89.
Schumacher, E. F., 1973, Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People

Mattered, London: Blond & Briggs.
Shahjahan, R. A., Ramirez, G., and Andreotti, V., 2017, “Attempting to Imagine
the Unimaginable: A Decolonial Reading of Global University Rankings”,
Comparative Education Review, 61(S1): S51-73. [DOI: 10.1086/69]
Silova, I., 2021, “Facing the Anthropocene: Comparative Education as
Sympoiesis”, Comparative Education Review, 65(4): 587-616.
Silova, I., Komatsu, H., and Rappleye, J., 2018, “Facing the Climate Change
Catastrophe: Education as Solution or Cause?” NORRAG Blog . (https://www.norrag.org/facing-the-climate-change-catastrophe-education-as-solut
ion-or-cause-by-iveta-silova-hikaru-komatsu-and-jeremy-rappleye/, 2024.1.22)
Sium, A., Desai, C., and Ritskes, E., 2012, “Towards the ‘Tangible Unknown’:
Decolonization and the Indigenous Future”, Decolonization: Indigeneity,

Education & Society, 1(1): i-xiii.
Steffen, W., Crutzen, P., and McNeill, J. R., 2007, “The Anthropocene: Are
Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?”, AMBIO: A

Journal of the Human Environment, 36(8): 614-21.
Stein, S. and Hare, J., 2023, “The Challenges of Interrupting Climate Colonialism
in Higher Education: Reflections on a University Climate Emergency Plan”,

Harvard Educational Review, 93(3): 289-312. [DOI: 10.17763/1943-504593.3.289]
Stein, S., 2019a, “Beyond Higher Education as we Know It: Gesturing Towards
Decolonial Horizons of Possibility”, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 38:
143-61.
Stein, S., 2019b, “The Ethical and Ecological Limits of Sustainability: A
Decolonial Approach to Climate Change in Higher Education”, Australian

Journal of Environmental Education, 35(3): 198-212. [DOI: 10.1017/aee.2019.17]
Stein, S., 2022, Unsettling the University: Confronting the Colonial Foundations

81

of US Higher Education, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Ahenakew, C., Suša, R., Valley, W., Huni Kui, N.,
Tremembé, M., Taylor, L., Siwek, D., Cardoso, C., Duque, C., Oliveira da Silva
Huni Kui, C., Calhoun, B., van Sluys, S., Amsler, S., D’Emilia, D., Pigeau, D.,
Andreotti, B., Bowness, E., and McIntyre, A., 2023, “Beyond Colonial
Futurities in Climate Education”, Teaching in Higher Education, 28(5), 9871004. [DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2023.2193667]
Stengers, I., 2012, “Reclaiming Animism”, E-Flux Journal, 36: 1-10.
Sterling, S., Dawson, J., and Warwick, P., 2018, “Transforming Sustainability
Education at the Creative Edge of the Mainstream: A Case Study of
Schumacher College”, Journal of Transformative Education, 16(4), 323-43.
Stockholm Resilience Center, 2023, “All Planetary Boundaries Mapped out for
the First Time, Six of Nine Crossed”. (https://www.stockholmresilience.org/
research/research-news/2023-09-13-all-planetary-boundaries-mapped-out-for the-first-time-six-of-nine-crossed.html, 2024.1.22)
Tachine, A. R. and Cabrera, N. L., 2021, “I’ll Be Right Behind You”: Native
American Families, Land Debt, and College Affordability”, AERA Open, 7.
[DOI: 10.1177/23328584211025522]
Terrill, M., 2022, “Indigenous Scholars at ASU Share Traditions, Knowledge”,

ASU Now. (https://news.asu.edu/20220121-arizona-impact-indigenous-scholars-asu-share-traditions-knowledge, 2024.1.22)
Tlostanova, M. and W. Mignolo, 2012, Learning to Unlearn: Decolonial

Reflections from Eurasia and the Americas, Ohio State University Press.
Tricoles, R., 2020, “ASU Achieves Carbon Neutrality, Ranked Among Most
Sustainable Universities in the World”, ASU News. (https://news.asu.e
du/20200421-solutions-asu-achieves-carbon-neutrality-ranked-among-mostsustainable-universities-world, 2024.1.22)
Tuck, E. and R. A. Gaztambide-Fernández, 2013, “Curriculum, Replacement, andSettler Futurity”, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 29(1): 72-89.
Turner, G., 2008, “A Comparison of the Limits to Growth with Thirty Years ofReality”, Global Environmental Change, 18(3): 397-411. [DOI: 10.1016/j.
gloenvcha.2008.05.001]
Turner, G., 2012, “On the Cusp of Global Collapse? Updated Comparison of theLimits of Growth with Historical Data”, Gaia, 21(2): 116-24. [DOI: 10.14512/gaia.21.2.10]
UNESCO, 2021a, Pathways to 2050 and Beyond: Findings from a Public

Consultation on the Futures of Higher Education, United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization.

82

Higher Education Futures Beyond the Anthropocene
UNESCO, 2021b, Reimagining Our Futures Together: A New Social Contractfor

Education,

UnitedNations

Educational,

ScientificandCultural

Organization.
Vamvalis, M., 2023, ‘“We’re Fighting for our Lives’: Centering Affective,
Collective and Systemic Approaches to Climate Justice Education as a YouthMental Health Imperative”, Research in Education, 117(1): 88-112. [DOI:
10.1177/00345237231160090]
Viveiros de Castro, E., 2017, Cannibal Metaphysics: For a Poststructural
Anthropology, University of Minnesota Press.
White, L., Jr., 1967, “The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis”, Science,
155(3767): 1203-7. [DOI: 10.1126/science.155.3767.1203.]
Wilder, C. S., 2013, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History ofAmerica’s Universities, Bloomsbury Press.
Yusoff, K., 2018, A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, University of
Minnesota Press.
Zembylas, M., 2018, “The Entanglement of Decolonial and Posthuman
Perspectives: Tensions and Implications for Curriculum and Pedagogy inHigher Education”, Parallax, 24(3): 254-67.
Zhong, R., 2022, “These Climate Scientists Are Fed Up and Ready to Go on
Strike”, New York Times. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/climate/ipcc-climate-scientists-strike.html, 2024.1.22)

83

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Maki Kato for theinvitation to deliver this paper at the symposium “Connecting Higher Education
Research and Practice: What We Can Do in the Next Quarter Century,” whichmarked the 25th Anniversary of the Center for the Studies of Higher Education
at Nagoya University. This paper draws on many ideas from our ongoingcollaborative research conversations with Jeremy Rappleye and Hikaru
Komatsu ‒ I am forever grateful for the opportunity to think and learn together.
I would also like to thank Carrie Karsgaard, Andrea Weinberg, Janna Goebel,
and Neil McGurty for their sharp and thoughtful feedback on earlier versionsof this paper. Finally, many thanks to Kukiko Okada for her patience andsupport in the final stages of preparing this paper for publication.

84

名古屋高等教育研究

第 24 号 （2024）

人新世における高等教育の未来−科学、芸術、想像の力を結集して−イヴェタ・シロバ*＜要旨＞

生態系危機の多面的な性質は、技術科学的な解決策のみに焦点を当てた研究によって解決されるものではなく、文化、教育、社会変革に関する根本的な前提を批判的に問い直す必要がある。脱植民地主義やエコフェミニズムの批評を踏まえながら、本稿ではまず、現在の世界的な気候の惰性と、高等教育機関が現状にどのように関与しているかについて論じる。そして、現在の近代的／植民地的な高等教育システムが、惑星の持続可能性に向けた文化的転換を促すた
めに、どのように再構築されうるのかを考察する。人新世を前に、文化の変革に必要な批判的想像力を育む上で、高等教育の役割と責任とは何か？気候危機という緊急事態に対応するために、科学、芸術、想像力の力をどのように動員できるのか？ 異なる知識の生態
系を効果的に統合し、研究と実践の溝を埋め、惑星のウェルビーイ
ングを優先するような方法で、高等教育と惑星の持続可能性の関係を再構築するにはどうすればよいのか？本稿の最後に、アリゾナ州
立大学のミニ・ケーススタディを紹介し、人新世を超えた高等教育の未来を再構築する際に、近代的／植民地的構造を再構築する際の課題と機会、そして矛盾と複雑性の両方を説明する。

アリゾナ州立大学・教授

85