Join us for a talk with Corine Pelluchon and Cyrille Barnerias at Duke University about today’s pressing ecological challenges.
Monday, Jan. 26, 2026 | 5:00pm
Duke University
On January 26, Corine Pelluchon, Professor of Philosophy at Gustave Eiffel University, and Cyrille Barnerias, Director of European and International Relations at the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB), will be hosted at Duke University for a conference addressing today’s pressing ecological challenges.
Together, they will reflect on the idea of a “New Enlightenment” for the Anthropocene, exploring emerging forms of interdependence among human, animal, and plant life in the face of biodiversity loss.
The discussion will consider how earlier societies and ecosystems co-adapted to climate pressures, and whether a new social contract could foster a more equitable coexistence between human and nonhuman worlds. It will also examine how these philosophical and ethical reflections can be translated into public policy and meaningful forms of public engagement.
The conference will also be accessible remotely via videoconference. Connection details and the access link will be made available on the VA website in due course.
Corine Pelluchon
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Corine Pelluchon is a Professor of Philosophy at Gustave Eiffel University. She specializes in moral and political philosophy, and in medical, environmental and animal ethics, addressing themes such as ecology and our relationship to nature, eco-anxiety, vulnerability and democracy. She received the Günther Anders Prize for Critical Thinking and the prestigious Leopold Lucas Preis in recognition of her work. Major publications include Nourishment: A Philosophy of the Political Body (trans. J.E. Smith, Bloomsbury, 2019), which explores our corporeality and dependence on nature and other living beings; Enlightenment in the Ecological Age (Ethics International Press, 2025), which examines the relevance of the Enlightenment heritage in the current technological, political and ecological context, and continues the work begun in Éthique de la considération (Seuil, 2018 – rights available) which focuses on the moral dispositions required to achieve ecological transition; L’être et la mer. Pour un existentialisme écologique (PUF, 2024 – rights available), where she examines our reliance on the ocean and the submersible dimensions of both the Earth and the human psyche.
Cyrille Barnerias
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Cyrille Barnerias is the Director of European and International Relations at the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB). Prior to joining OFB, he worked with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in Washington, D.C., where he contributed to marine and terrestrial biodiversity projects, and in Martinique, where he focused on biodiversity and the conservation of protected species and areas. He began his career at the French Forest Inventory, on methods, protocols, and management. Across these diverse roles, he has built a career dedicated to biodiversity, spanning the full spectrum from inventory and conservation to international cooperation. He is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
