PLANETARY HEALING READING GROUP
The Planetary Healing Reading Group, convened by Dr Ros Gray and Dr Jol Thoms with MA Art and Ecology students, PhD affiliates and others, gathers to read together different kinds of texts to deepen their understanding of how planetary health relates to questions of justice. It is an inclusive space to discuss methods, practices and issues relevant to practices of and possibilities for planetary healing, attending to the different ‘ecologies of knowledge’ and relations of power that impact health and environmental justice, with particular focus on inter-scalar and intersectional perspectives, and how the microbiome is a site of struggle for planetary health inextricably linked to social justice. The conversation has meandered through planetary health, microbiome, dysbiosis, inflammation, metabolic rift, environmental racism, extractivism, slow violence, deep medicine, healing, ceremony and repair, with the expectation that other terms and perspectives will emerge through the collective work.
In April 2025, Planetary Healing Reading Group participated in presenting a Study Day to assemble a performative glossary for planetary healing as part of the CICC School at Ambika P3 and the Serpentine Gallery, with special contributions from Adriana Aroyo, Yasmin Smith, Fajrina Razak, Kalika Kulukundis, Adriana Gallo and Abhaya Rajani. The Planetary Healing Reading Group thanks Radha de Souza, Jonas Staal, Serpentine Gallery and University of Westminster for the generous invitation and recognises the Banatjarl Strongbala Wimun Grup of Jawoyn Association, living on Jawoyn Country.
READING LIST
John Bellamy Foster (2010), ‘Introduction: A Rift in Earth and Time’, in The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth, Monthly Review Press: pp. 13-24
Planetary Health Check 2024, https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org
Michael Friedman (2018), ‘Metabolic Rift and the Human Microbiome’, Monthly Review, July-August 2018
Susan L Prescott and Alan C Logan (2019), ‘Planetary Health: From Wellspring of Holistic Medicine to Personal and Public Health Imperative’, Explore, March-April: pp. 98-106
Margaret Davis (2022), ‘Introduction’, Eco-Law: Legality, Life, and the Normativity of Nature, Routledge: pp. 1-15
Eleanor Hadley Kershaw (2023), ‘Multispecies Mending from Micro to Macro: Biome Restoration, Carbon Recycling and Ecologies of Participation’, Ecological Reparation: Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict, Bristol University Press: pp. 119-137
Rupa Marya and Raj Patel (2021), Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, Penguin
Indulata Prasad (2022), "Toward Dalit Ecologies', Environment and Society, 13, 1, pp. 998-120
Yasmin Smith (2024), 'Banatjarl Strongbala Wumin Grup', The Journal of Australian Ceramics, November 2024, pp. 35-45