Seminar 5: Dr Julia Bentz (Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change, University of Lisbon, Portugal): What if? – Embodied art, storytelling and regenerative futures

Dr. Julia Bentz’s presentation explores creative forms of engagement in social-ecological change and regenerative futures. Delving into storytelling, creative imagination, playful theater, performance practices, and other arts-based methods this talk inquires into the question of the extent to which imagining, co-creating and telling new stories about regenerative and equitable ways of living enables us to realize new realities. “We cannot create what we cannot imagine,” said once the American poet Lucille Clifton. Stories play an important role in transforming social, political, economic and environmental realities because they can challenge our thinking and invite us to seeing new perspectives. Julia Bentz argues for an integrative approach to sustainability transformations and regeneration, one that reconnects body and mind, that fuses art and science and that integrates diverse forms of knowledge in an open, collaborative and creative way. This talk draws on the experiences of arts-based projects in Portugal and Germany, and explores embodied and performative practices and their potential for regenerative futures.