The program is now released for the ClimateExistence symposium November 20! Registration closes November 6 and seats are limited. Looking forward to seeing you all later this autumn!
Welcome to a special edition of ClimateExistence, this time as a half-day symposium and evening social in Uppsala! We gather to explore the existential dimensions of the climate crisis and discuss new, challenging insights and ways of being human in an unravelling world.
When: November 20, 2025 at 13.15-17.30 CET followed by evening social
Where: Humanities Theatre, Uppsala University, Thunbergsvägen 3C, Uppsala, see map here: https://link.mazemap.com/sqAhi7NL
How: Joint session in the Humanities Theatre, fika break, then workshops, and finally evening social
Registration: https://doit.medfarm.uu.se/bin/kurt3/kurt/8889520
The registration closes November 6, 2025
Program – Thursday November 20
The program will be updated during the autumn. Click on rooms to get directions and maps.
Time |
Program |
| 13.15-13.20 | Malin Östman Welcome to ClimateExistence! and today’s symposium in Uppsala [22-008 Humanities Theatre, English Park Campus] |
| 13.20-14.00 | Mikael Kurkiala Control or meaningfulness? Existential dilemmas at the brink of the abyss [22-008 Humanities Theatre, English Park Campus] |
| 14.00-14.40 | Anita Goldman The Geography of Wild Hope [22-008 Humanities Theatre, English Park Campus] |
| 14.40-14.50 | Short break (without fika, coffee, tea) |
| 14.50-15.30 | Panel with Udesh Fernando, Anita Goldman and Mikael Kurkiala moderated by Malin Östman [22-008 Humanities Theatre, English Park Campus] |
| 15.30-16.00 | Fika break with coffee, tea and smaller sandwich [22 Mingle space outside of Humanities Theatre] |
| 16.00-17.30 | Parallel sessions
Session 1
Lisa Pelling and Marika Palmér Rivera The Life We Live Here – Insights from Conversations about Climate Change and the Green Transition
Session 2
Pella Thiel Showing up as the Baltic Sea
Session 3
Martha Middlemiss Lé Mon and researchers at the Centre for Religion and Society, CRS, Uppsala University, present their research [22-1017 Seminar room, English Park Campus]
Session 4
Ingrid M. Rieser Forest of Thought live podcast session [2-0076 room to be decided, English Park Campus]
Session 5
Vanessa Masterson and May-Britt Öhman Indigenous perspectives on and expertise within climate change, justice, technology and sciences |
| 18.00- | Evening social at CEMUS with open stage and more (see invitation email for details) [CEMUS Library, Geocentrum, Villavägen 16] |
Guests and contributors
This section will be updated as guests are confirmed.
Udesh Fernando [Course Coordinator CEMUS, Uppsala University and Board Director, Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning]
Udesh is a development professional and educator who is currently a Board Director at the Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning in Sri Lanka. As a Swedish Institute scholar, he holds an M.Sc. from the University of London and is pursuing another at Uppsala University. His career includes policy and research roles focusing on reconciliation, democratic dialogue, and constitutional reform. He is currently based in Sweden, where he combines his studies with course coordination at Uppsala University’s Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS).
Anita Goldman [Author, writer och publicist]
Anita Goldman is a Swedish writer och publicist. She has published almost twenty books — fiction and non-fiction. Her latest book was released in 2025: Det vilda hoppets geografi (“The Geography of Wild Hope”) which is a very broad investigation into our(Western) civilization’s relationship to nature. Goldman also contributes larger opinion-pieces to the foremost Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter. She offers a thorough civilizational critique within mainstream media, focusing on our nuclear, environmental, and food production practices while also highlighting the importance of reconnecting with nature and finding a spiritual grounding.Goldman is an impatient but avid grower of vegetables and perennials at her house at the south easternmost tip of Sweden, Österlen.
Mikael Kurkiala [Author and Researcher, the Swedish Church, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala University]
Mikael Kurkiala is associate professor of Cultural anthropology at Uppsala University and researcher at the Church Office. He is the author of, among other titles, In every drum beat the earth’s pulse: about the fear of differences of our time (Ordfront 2005) and When the Soul Goes into Exile: Modernity, Technology & the Sacred (Verbum 2019). He has also participated in several anthologies about the place of existential issues in contemporary society and is the editor of an annual anthology – Tidens tecken – (“Signs of the times”) published by Artos.
Vanessa A. Masterson [Researcher, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Associate Researcher, Department of Anthropology, Rhodes University, South Africa]
Vanessa A. Masterson is a researcher at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, and associate researcher at the Department of Anthropology at Rhodes University, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Sustainability Science and her research explores cultural, personal and relational values of nature which play a critical role in our well-being and stewardship of ecosystems. She has a particular focus on participatory, emancipatory and arts-based methods to facilitate mobilization of local and Indigenous knowledge systems and perspectives in transdisciplinary arenas. Masterson leads the project ‘Powering Change with Justice’ which weaves together Indigenous knowledge and cross-scale policy analyses to examine the social and ecological impacts of the wind energy transition and alternative futures for Sámi communities in northern Sweden, and local and traditional communities in Brazil.
https://www.stockholmresilience.org/meet-our-team/staff/2011-11-02-masterson.html
Lisa Pelling [Head of Arena Idé, Political Scientist and Media Commentator]
Lisa Pelling is a Swedish political scientist and the head of the progressive think tank Arena Idé. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, with expertise in migration, democracy, and welfare. Pelling has previously worked at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and as Secretary-General of the International Union of Socialist Youth. She is a regular contributor to Dagens Arena and Social Europe, and has co-authored several books, including Det svenska missnöjet. She is also a frequent media commentator.
Ingrid M. Rieser [Host Forest of Though Podcast]
Ingrid M. Rieser works with communication in audio, film and writing, and is the host of the Forest of Thought podcast. In her podcast and work Ingrid is interested in exploring how we can open up the possibilities for different modes of thinking and being in the world – modes that might help us live well together on planet Earth. Her background is in economics, sustainability, education and filmmaking.
Marika Palmér Rivera [Research Officer, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), author]
Marika Palmér Rivera is a research officer at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), specializing in Just Transition Policy. With a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering, she works to ensure the green transition is socially sustainable and fair for workers. She is a co-author of the book Livet som pågår här, which explores how communities perceive and cope with climate change. Rivera is a public voice in the climate policy debate, advocating for equitable solutions.
Pella Thiel [Author, Activist and Educator]
Pella Thiel is a maverick ecologist, activist and author who works with relational, systemic activism, change processes and leadership för a society in harmony with nature. She is a knowledge expert in the UN Harmony with Nature initiative and co-founder of swedish hubs of international networks like the Swedish Transition Network and End Ecocide Sweden. She also teaches ecopsychology and is a part of the eco-psychology/art/activist NGO Lodyn.
May-Britt Öhman [Associate Professor Environmental History, Researcher, Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University]
May-Britt Öhman is associate professor in environmental history, researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University. Öhman is Lule and Forest Sámi of the Lule River valley, and has also Tornedalian heritage. Öhman leads the supradisciplinary research group Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change Studies, and several research projects working towards the establishment and development of the research field Indigenous Climate Change Studies, centering Indigenous peoples’ expertise, experiences, perspectives and epistemologies, through publications, film making, organization of seminars, workshops, and networking. Exchange and collaboration with Sámi reindeer herders and Sámi associations spans over two decades. A major point of interest is to make space for Indigenous-Sámi expertise in academia – as scholars, experts, research leaders.
https://www.uu.se/kontakt-och-organisation/personal?query=N8-902