2025 De Carle Distinguished Lecture series

Presented by Associate Professor Benjamin McKean (PhD, MA Princeton, BA Harvard)

What does it mean to talk about humanity’s relationship with nature when we are ourselves natural creatures? What does our status as natural creatures mean for solidarity? How widely do the demands of solidarity extend? What would it mean to be in solidarity with non-human nature if we cannot expect conscious reciprocity? And is it reasonable to expect solidarity with non-human nature when we cannot even muster solidarity among humans? I will argue that we need to reorient our way of seeing nature in order to address the climate crisis and if we do so, the demands of solidarity with each other and with nonhuman nature will be easier to meet.

Livestream

Watch the livestream of this lecture

About Associate Professor Benjamin McKean

Ben is a political theorist whose research concerns global justice, climate change, populism and the relationship between theory and practice.

Currently at The Ohio State University and formerly a Harper-Schmidt Fellow at the University of Chicago, Ben is researching the inadequacy of existing political concepts for addressing climate change. His book, Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020) argues that people subject to unjust institutions and practices should be disposed to solidarity with others who are also subject to them – even when those relations cross state borders.

2025 series

Our lecture series starts on Tuesday 25 March, and concludes on Tuesday 6 May, as follows:

• Tuesday, 25 March: Is despair an obstacle to achieving climate justice?
• Wednesday, 2 April: Climate change as a challenge to theodicy and other narratives of progress*
• Tuesday, 8 April: Can popular sovereignty help us avoid climate catastrophe?
• Monday, 14 April: Does calling climate change a “global” problem erase indigenous politics?
• Tuesday, 29 April: Does addressing climate change require us to shift our understanding of “the market”?
• Tuesday, 6 May: Reorienting our way of seeing nature as a path to solidarity

Venue: Hutton Theatre, Tūhura Otago Museum, but *Wednesday, 2 April held in Burns 2
All lectures run 5:30–7pm. Staff, students, and members of the public are welcome to attend.