Dr. Jean Chamel

Jean Chamel is an anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Swiss National Science Foundation, as well as an associate researcher at the Institute of History and Anthropology of Religions (IHAR) of the University of Lausanne. In 2018, he defended his thesis in Religious Studies that examines the discourses and practices of the precursors of the theories of collapse (“collapsologie”) in French-speaking Europe. His current research focuses on the global movement for the rights of nature that promote the attribution of legal personality to non-human entities, with the invention of ritual practices connecting humans and other-than-human persons. Jean Chamel has taught at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, the University of Lausanne and the UNAM in Mexico City.

RCC Project: Giving Rights to Mother Earth. Rituals, Indigeneity and Ecospiritualities

Selected Publications:

• "Relational Ecologists Facing 'the End of a World': Inner Transition, Ecospirituality, and the Ontological Debate." In Indigenous Perceptions of the End of the World: Creating a Cosmopolitics of Change, edited by R. Bold. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 161-181.
• "Faire le deuil d’un monde qui meurt. Quand la collapsologie rencontre l’écospiritualité." Terrain 71 (2019) : 68-85.
• "'On est tous des composts'. Discours et pratiques écologistes autour des déchets organiques et des toilettes sèches." Tsantsa 22 (2017) : 89-94.