Relations and Difference: Teaching the Human and More-than-Human Ecologies in Germany
Abstract
When the world churns with injustices, what possibilities emerge in thinking across multispecies relations? Grounded in multidisciplinary encounters with ice, octopuses, and farmers who graze goats in lethal landscapes, among others, this article draws on my experiences of teaching the Human and More-than-Human Ecologies course at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. The article proposes that engaging with irreducible lifeworlds in the thickness of their structural inequalities might 1) help build the interpretive skills to assess dominant environmentalisms, and 2) cultivate an open orientation towards the world in all its horror and wonder.
Submitted: Sept. 8, 2025 | Accepted: Nov. 19, 2025 | Published Dec. 18, 2025 | Language: en
Keywords Ethics • Wonder • More-than-human ecologies • Action • Difference • Ambivalence • Liberal environmentalisms • Relations • Humans • Ethnography
Copyright © 2025 Pooja Nayak. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2025/02/006