Jackie Gallant will join the More-Than-Human(ities) Lab to discuss her work with the More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program, an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to the advancement of rights and well-being for humans, nonhumans, and the web of life that sustains us all. The Program has two primary goals. First, using the tools of the law, MOTH offers answers to key questions raised by a host of disciplines concerning human relationships—institutional, political, legal, and cultural—with the natural world, including in the context of pressing ecological challenges. These questions include:

How can the sciences—from mycology to botany and ecology to marine biology—be translated into and transform the law to better protect life on Earth? How can Indigenous and Western sciences join forces to create and transform legal protections for the more-than-human world?

How can we strengthen the implementation of the growing number of rights of nature rulings and laws to ensure they have material impact?

How do we give back to nature for its contributions to human activities and endeavors?

How can we bridge concern for humans and nonhumans as we ratchet up decisive actions to address the climate and biodiversity emergencies? How can a holistic approach to these and other ecological challenges contribute to reducing societal polarization as well as individual and species loneliness?

How can we best use technology – and guard against its excesses – to better understand and relate to nonhumans and nature more generally?

The answers—developed through MOTH actions—aim to protect the living world and its many beings while achieving more-than-human rights in practice.

Second, MOTH nurtures and consolidates the field of practice and inquiry dedicated to more-than-human rights and related topics. In particular, MOTH builds bridges between disciplines and nurtures intercultural and interdisciplinary collaboration and ideation.

The MOTH Program is an initiative of Earth Rights Research and Action (TERRA), a program based at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law.

Jackie Gallant is a lawyer and the Director of Programs at the NYU MOTH Program. At MOTH, she leads legal actions and programs which address major ecological challenges, like climate change, and pressing questions concerning legal, political, and cultural relationships with the more-than-human world.