At first glance, violence and care seem like opposites: whereas violence harms, care sustains. But a closer look reveals that the two often intersect. Grounded in examples of biodiversity conservation, this talk will explore how, in many cases, we end up enacting violence in the pursuit of care. Professor Barnett will also discuss the moral discomfort that can arise when we realize our efforts to care may rely on harm, leading us to feel torn between different ethical commitments. The goal is not to offer a simple solution, but to reflect on how care and violence are often entangled, and to consider how we might find ways to care for the earth and our fellow cohabitants that are less harmful.

About the Presenter: Joshua Trey Barnett is the author of Mourning in the Anthropocene: Ecological Grief and Earthly Coexistence (2022) and the editor of Ecological Feelings: A Rhetorical Compendium (2025). He is an assistant professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University.

April 22 | 4 PM | du Bois Aspen A OR Zoom
Free and open to the public

Zoom at: tinyurl.com/z2br952k