2025-2026 Gaia Think-and-Act Series

The Inclusive Ecology Collective (IEC), based at NYU Shanghai, is a Think-and-Act Network that weaves together interdisciplinary research, intergenerational wisdom, and inter-cosmological perspectives to catalyze systemic transformations in response to today’s planetary ecological crisis. Entering its second year (2025–2026), IEC is building on the momentum of its inaugural “Oikos” (Shared Home) Think-and-Act Series by launching a new cycle of community-engaged co-creations centered on “Gaia.”

First introduced in the 1970s by English chemist James Lovelock and American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, Gaia theory proposes that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system that sustains the conditions necessary for life (Lovelock, 1979; Margulis & Lovelock, 1974). Rather than viewing the planet as an inert backdrop for human activity, Gaia theory invites us to see Earth as a dynamic, living network—where air, water, soil, and living beings interact to create balance and resilience. In this view, human life is not separate from the planet’s processes but an integral part of Earth’s larger, evolving story.

Inspired by this vision and enriched by scholar-practitioner voices from Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa, the Gaia Series will explore the radical implications of regarding Earth as animate and intelligent. Through experiential and interactive programs, we will investigate the fertile intersections of ecology, ecofeminism, indigenous knowledges and cosmologies, and regenerative agriculture and permaculture. By co-creating diverse ways of knowing and relating to “Gaia”, IEC seeks to honor the wisdom of Planet Earth as it courses through the myriad forms of life—human and more-than-human alike.