In the American West, interconnected ecological and human worlds are suffering. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint (LDS) values, practices, and histories strongly influence the ecological communities of our region, yet research on LDS environmental perceptions is limited. Join us to hear from one researcher and artist studying Mormon multispecies justice and worlds across the Great Salt Lake Watershed. PhD student and artist-activist Sarah Woodbury will share her research on LDS relationships with the land and water, including her proposed “Mormon multispecies ethic” that increases understanding between conservationists and LDS communities in the Intermountain West. She will also weave in stories from her ritual art activism for Great Salt Lake and local ecologies over the last six years.

Bio: Sarah Woodbury is a close student of the more-than-human world, creating multidisciplinary projects shimmering toward its sentience and life. As a creature given to Earth, she performs, organizes, speaks, researches, and writes toward multispecies kinship and justice. Sarah has scholarly work forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Multispecies Justice and collaborative eco-poetry made with Los Cedros and Robert Macfarlane forthcoming in Atmos Magazine. Her eco-poetry and dance film have appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Sugar House Review, and Calyx. Her work pours into various circles, from academia to international gatherings to aspen stands to legislatures to performances with her hyper-local collective, Apprentice. Sarah will soon spend a long while as a writer-in-residence working deep inside the American wilderness.

Meet in person at CVUU or online through Zoom on Sunday at 10:00 AM.