Collectively mourning extinct or near-extinct more-than-human entities facilitates recognition of the more-than-human as co-participants in shared reality¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · design r1 · q1
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q1 i? In the author's course, an assignment tasking students to eulogize an extinct or near-extinct species, place, or way of life facilitated recognition of the more-than-human as co-participants in shared reality rather than mere objects for exploitation. → Rife 2025

Evidence¶

Rife 2025¶

Rife, T. S. (2025). Critical Communication Pedagogy at the End of the World. Journal of Communication Pedagogy. https://doi.org/10.31446/JCP.2025.1.07

q1 · i? · design · r1

The author's reflective report from teaching the course Communication at the End of the World, in which students eulogized entities such as pangolins, redwoods, glaciers, gentrified urban homeplaces, and the Great Barrier Reef. The author reports that "the opportunity to collectively mourn" these losses facilitated recognition of more-than-human co-participation; no empirical measures are reported.

"In every case, the opportunity to collectively mourn that which is often excluded from consideration as grievable facilitates a recognition of the more-than-human as co-participants in our shared reality, as opposed to mere objects available for exploitation by humans."

Discussion¶

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