5. Studies in Blue Agency — Six global tales against eco-anxiety

The fifth cycle of OCEAN / UNI, Studies in Blue Agency, departs from case studies that embody critical aspects of our ecological times, expanding them on a wider scale—from the specific to the planetary level—to identify existing and emergent strategies of response. It is said that eco-anxiety can be alleviated through exercising agency or having an actual or perceived ability to act. Yet agency is not an exclusive feat of the rational human, or even collectives; it proliferates across complex assemblages of non-human actors and systems. It is necessary to acknowledge all elements of the biosphere as agents, creating relational bonds and effects that structurally modify the planet at all times. Together with them, it is possible to imagine a different planet: one that is not only conserved to survive, but even regenerated for mutual abundance.

Unfolding throughout Fall 2022, the six live sessions narrate strategies for adapting and attuning to the shifting frictions among "us", our other-than-human neighbors, and the biosphere. The regional case studies contain critiques but also examples of affirmative interventions from ocean ecosystem regeneration, adaptation, activism, policy transformation, and social justice. In this context, art and humanities allow us to research the world together with other disciplines, becoming more than mere means of communication. Activism morphs from a political movement to a creative force: a fluid expression of our time and of the necessity to act, an essential request for access to agency that intersects the growing human desire for eco-justice with the power of more-than-human assemblages.

By foregrounding questions of agency and influence, and staging the entire semester as a structured methodological enquiry, Studies in Blue Agency charts who and what is playing which role in situated geographic case studies and Ocean policy domains—in other words, who and what has the capacity to act and with what effects? OCEAN / UNI builds on rich understandings of the myriad and alarming ecological tales that demand to be told, to explore multifarious practices and agencies coalescing with world-building effects. In tracing how and why such worlds have emerged and are sustained, but also challenged in practice, we envisage new worlds—regenerative, just and ultimately livable ones—that might also be ushered into existence.

Wednesday, 5 October
First session
STUDIES IN BLUE AGENCY: A PROLOGUE FOR CLIMATE ACTION​
With Abhayraj Naik, Environmental Lawyer, Educator and Activist, Co-Founder of Initiative for Climate Action

Wednesday, 19 October
Second session
SECURING SMALL-SCALE FISHING JUSTICE WITHIN OCEAN CONSERVATION INITIATIVES
With Monieba Isaacs, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, regional coordinator and founding member of Too Big To Ignore, a global partnership for the future of small-scale fisheries; Massa Lemu, visual artist, writer, assistant professor in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Wednesday, 2 November
Third session
MOVING BEYOND ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE AND ECO-SYNDROMES
With Aylin Ulman, Marine Biologist, Founder of Mersea Consulting; Mert Gökalp, Marine Biologist and Filmmaker

Wednesday, 16 November
Fourth session
THINKING WITH THE SEABED: THE FUTURE OF OCEAN EXTRACTIVISM​
With Dr. Patricia Esquete, Deep Sea Biologist, University of Aveiro, Portugal; Clement Yow Mulalap, Legal Advisor to Federated States of Micronesia and International Environmental Lawyer, Blue Ocean Law

Wednesday, 30 November
Fifth session
PERFORMING BLUE DE-GROWTH
With John Childs, Lancaster University Environment Center; Massa Lemu, Visual Artist and Writer.

Wednesday, 14 December
Sixth session
A FUTURE VERNACULAR? FOREGROUNDING LOCALIZED KNOWLEDGES FOR FUTURE-BUILDING
With Rashad Salim, Expeditionary Artist and Activist.