A Maverick Teacher is someone who applies a balance of creativity, innovation, empathy and science to the art of teaching to support students and their learning. Maverick Teachers contextualise the learning process within the pressing and complex issues of sustainability and develop innovative pedagogic strategies to impact millions of teachers and children across India.  The Global Summit 2016 is organised by the Agastya International Foundation, one of the largest science education programs that caters to economically disadvantaged children and teachers in the world. The goal of the summit is to make learning economically and culturally relevant and to develop grassroots education. 35 leading cutting-edge pedagogues are chosen to participate in the Global Summit. They will spend 6 days to explore and create pedagogies for the future to support education for a sustainable world.

 

 

 

Interviewed by Ron Lester Whyte for Deep Green Philly, 7th June 2016

Description:
Many people were outraged after Harambe, a critically endangered silverback gorilla, was shot to death after a toddler fell into his enclosure. Layla AbdelRahim brings her unique perspective to this tragedy, encouraging us to examine the social forces and historical processes that led to the gorilla’s death and the subsequent demonization of the boy’s mother. Along with John Zerzan, Layla AbdelRahim is one of today’s most intriguing anti-civ theorists.

Excerpt:

“Even those who are arguing for ?#?Harambe? are looking in the wrong direction; they are blaming the Black mother because it’s easy to blame the Black mother. They are not blaming the whole institution that has put all of us on display, but worst of all people like Harambe… What do we do with animals that we cannot force to work or keep as pets? We kill them or we put them in zoos….

Until very recently, Black people were categorized along with Harambe as not worthy of anything; they were resources for sexual pleasure and for work… If apes could have been domesticated into hard labor they would have been, and yet even today we have brothels where orangutans are exploited.”

Part 1/2:

For parts 1 and 2 of the interview click  HERE

 

“Schools teach children the principles of death and of suffering. They do not teach them the principles of life, which is diversity, which is being out there in the world. They teach them within closed systems, within closed buildings and walls, separated from the rest of the world. They teach them that violence is legitimate when it is applied from the top to the bottom and that it is illegitimate when it is practised in resistance or defence of diversity and life. They teach children that humanity is alien to this world, that success means pleasing those in authority who will own the products of our flesh, of our effort, of our work, of our love.” – Layla AbdelRahim

In the interview, Layla discusses some of the main ideas in her wonderful book Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood Publishing, 2013).

Here’s my interview with anthropologist, author, and researcher Layla AbdelRahim.

 

 

 

Paper presented at the conference in commemoration of Charles Darwin, titled: « Penser la conscience aujourd’hui. Un point de vue anthropologique sur la question »

Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal on Friday, 17th April, 2009

 

Abstract:

The French word “conscience” entails both consciousness and conscience. This conflation made me reflect on how the concepts that are separated in English could in fact be interlinked and interdependent.

Consciousness is the awareness of the self and the world and is directly related to conscience, since what we do depends on «what» and «how» we know. Language mediates this knowledge, which is built with the classificatory method of science, in which the category «human» is problematic, because it prompts scientists and people to see the world in a hierarchical and disconnected order. The Russian physiologist, Ilya Arshavski, studied the effects of humanism on the physiological, mental, and moral fabric of people and concluded that conscience and consciousness are drastically eroding and threaten to doom not only the human species, but the wild world at large. Species, says Arshavski, survive through cooperation and mutual aid, while competition and greed at the root of civilisation threaten the viability of the world and create a hostile environment. Because civilisation stands on the premises of monoculturalism (i.e., the assumption that the world exists for the purposes of one group or class of humans), then civilised sociality depends on alienation from the purpose and intelligence of the victims consumed by the civilised and the deterioration of civilised human understanding of the principles of life. Civilisation thus precipitated the deterioration of intelligence. The effects of the globalism of civilisation and the resultant extinction of thousands of species call for an urgent re-examination of anthropology.

In 2013, George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Black teenager, Trayvon Martin, to many came as a surprise mostly because the civilised believe words and focus on language rather than on actions, praxis, and consequences. Namely, civilised people see the judicial system with its verbose process as a system of justice and in the eyes of those involved in Zimmerman’s trial, there was “no evidence beyond reasonable doubt” that Zimmerman acted outside the confines of the American law. Thus, the question here was not whether killing someone was wrong; the problem to be resolved was whether the killer had the right to kill.

In this lecture, Layla AbdelRahim discusses the civilised premises that construct the human animal as predatory, thus centering murder in anthropology itself and reinforcing the predatory narrative. Furthermore, this predation is structured by the classificatory system of civilised epistemology that categorises groups of living and nonliving beings, whether human or not, as “resources” and “consumers” thereby excluding whole groups and their immense suffering from the public discourse on justice. As discussed in her book, Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education, this predatory narrative is reinforced by both the medical sector and the system of education and is reconfirmed by the legislative system.

 

A public lecture organised by the Radical Criminology Working Group at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, B.C., Canada.

on: Tuesday, October 8, 2013at 5:30pm – 7:00pm in PDT
at: 12666 72 Avenue, Surrey, British Columbia V3W 2M8

View the lecture here: Crime & Reward from an Anarcho-Primitivist Perspective

 

 

Where: Montreal Anarchist Bookfrair, George Vanier Cultural Centre, room CCGV – Salle B

When: Sunday, 3pm, 24th May 2015

You can view the workshop here

 

Abstract:

In light of the intensification of war around the world, the
desertification of land and sea, the pollution of oceans and air, the
anthropogenic mass species extinction, the widening economic gap
between the “haves” and “have nots”, all leave the quality of our stay
and the duration of our civilisation-fest in jeopardy. The question
is, if we still plan to stick around, how are we going to solve these
problems?

To answer this question, the workshop will raise the problems of
knowledge, civilised economies, reproduction and transmission of the
schemas and structure of such economies (aka education), resistance,
and revolution. After identifying what is knowledge, its purpose and
social construction, as well as its use to structure unequal
classification systems and unjust economies, we will discuss both the
temporary successes and the reasons behind the failure of most
revolutions that have consistently been co-opted by a culture of
stratification and exploitation within the past millennium in order to
build on that experience for a lasting change and a viable planet in
which diversity will thrive.

Shorter Summary:

This workshop examines the role of knowledge and education in
civilised economy and the ways in which they sabotage resistance and
revolution. We will discuss both the temporary successes and the
reasons behind the failure of most revolutions that have consistently
been co-opted by a culture of stratification and exploitation within
the past millennium in order to build on that experience for a lasting
change and a viable planet in which diversity will thrive.

Open Forum: Layla AbdelRahim and John Zerzan respond (total time: 1hour and 51 minutes). Memphis, TN, 15th August 2009

Part 1 (mp3)

Part 2 (mp3)

It is with great enthusiasm that we are announcing the 2013 speaking tour for anthropologist, unschooler, and anarchist Layla AbdelRahim. Layla will be touring with her new book Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams through various communities in the Cascadian Bioregion.

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/388959827898277

Tour dates:

(1) Tuesday October 8, 5:30-7:00
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey BC, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
Crime and Reward from an Anarcho-primitivist Perspective.

See description below or on FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/235575403266795/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

 

(2) Saturday October 12, Spartacus Books
Vancouver BC, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
The Ingrained Premises of Injustice in the Unknowledge Sold as Education

https://www.facebook.com/events/522685137805658/?ref_dashboard_filter=calendar

 

(3) Sunday October 13, 7pm
Purple Thistle
Vancouver BC, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
The Insidious and Resilient Narratives of Domestication: Pitfalls to Watch for in Autonomous Learning Zones.
https://www.facebook.com/events/675007529178671/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

 

(4) Tuesday, October 15, 7pm,
Camas Books – 2620 Quadra St,
Victoria BC, unceded Lekwungen Territories
What’s in a Class? On Reproduction of Gender, Species, and Ethnicity as Categories for Labour and Consumption.
https://www.facebook.com/events/169052663280221/?fref=ts

 

(5) Wednesday October 16, 7pm
Duncan Garage Showroom
Duncan BC, unceded Quw’utsun’ Territory
Schooling as a Political Choice to Conform to the Colonizing Narrative of Domestication

FB event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/206747696164527/

 

(6) Friday, October 18, 7pm
University of Victoria
Victoria BC, Unceded Lekwungen Territories
The Ship of Fools as a Place of Spectacle, Healing, and Education where the Wild are Sent to Die.
http://geography.uvic.ca/colloquiums/AbdelRahim%20screen.jpg

 

(7) Tuesday October 22
Black Moon Collective, 113 4th Ave W
Olympia WA, Coast Salish Territories
Children at the Forefront of the War of Civilization over Colonization of Resources
https://www.facebook.com/events/580690978658664/

 

(8) Wednesday October 23, 7pm
Black Coffee, 501 E. Pine st.
Seattle, WA, Occupied Duwamish Territory
https://www.facebook.com/events/347668795368906/?fref=ts

 

(9) Friday October 25, 7:30pm
Red and Black Cafe
Portland (with music by special guest Mike XvX)
https://www.facebook.com/events/178111952381696/

 

(10) Tuesday October 29th, 12:00 – 2pm
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN

 

To order copies of Wild Children Domesticated Dreams
http://fernwoodpublishing.ca/Wild-Children-Domesticated-Dreams/

Please visit Layla’s Website (where you may find many of her writings online)
https://laylaonthe.net

The Wikipedia entry about Layla Abdel Rahim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layla_AbdelRahim

 

 

Full presentation descriptions and links to interviews and talks:

Interviews:

 

1)      On Animal Voices, Vancouver by Alissa: http://animalvoices.org/2013/10/layla-abdelrahim-tribute-to-turkeys/

2)      On Gorilla Radio, CFUV (University of Victoria) by Chris Cook: https://soundcloud.com/cfuv/gorilla-radio-layla-abdelrahim

3)       On Doers, Makers, Thinkers CFUV (University of Victoria) by Julian: https://soundcloud.com/cfuv/doers-makers-thinkers-layla

 

 

Talks:

 

(1)   Tuesday, 8^th October, 2013, 5:30 pm.

Department of Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechic University, Surrey, B.C.

Watch video here:

http://youtu.be/uVQujVAN6zM
Title:

Crime and Reward from an Anarcho-primitivist Perspective

 

 

Abstract:

George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Black teenager, Trayvon Martin, this summer came as a surprise to many mostly because the civilised believe words and focus on language rather than on praxis and consequences. Namely, civilised people see the judicial system with its verbose process of trial as a system of justice and in the eyes of those involved in Zimmerman’s trial, there was “no evidence beyond reasonable doubt” that Zimmerman acted outside the confines of the American law. The question thus was not whether killing someone was wrong, the problem that was to be resolved in this system of justice was whether the killer had the right to kill.

In this lecture, Layla AbdelRahim discusses the civilized premises that construct the human animal as predatory and thus centers murder in anthropology itself and reinforces the predatory narrative. Furthermore, this predation is structured by the classificatory system of civilized epistemology that categorizes groups of living and nonliving beings, whether human or not, as “resources” and “consumers” thereby excluding whole groups and immense suffering from the public discourse on justice. And as discussed in her book, Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education, this predatory narrative is reinforced by both the medical sector and the system of education.

 

 

(2)   Tuesday, 16^th

In Duncan, B.C.:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/39913923

 

Title:

Schooling as a Political Choice to Conform to the Colonising Narrative of Domestication

Abstract:

Obligatory schooling has become the global narrative that frames our understanding of how children must learn. Narratives become reality when people act according to the plot that drives these narratives. Hence, obligatory schooling, where children are taught through literacy how to know and live in the world, has become the reality for most human children on earth. Furthermore, even if the specific details of what, for instance, is taught in French schools might differ from what might be taught in Kenya, there is a unifying experience of submitting children to “discipline” and hierarchical structure of obedience through literacy from an early age. This literacy is mostly linked with today’s major civilisations: European, Arab, and Chinese, the core of whose syllabus aims to domesticate human resources and instill in them a place in the hierarchy of the “food chain”. In this respect, the seemingly personal choice of parents or a community to whether send their children to school or choose to educate them at home or in the community, in both cases, constitutes a political choice: one to conform to the socio-economic and political system based on consumption and exploitation or to resist this paradigm. In this talk, Layla will draw on her discussion of “unschooling” and “schooling” in her new book Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood Publishing 2013) to address how successful resistance has to entail a critique of the underlying speciesist, racist, and misogynist mandate of the domesticating narrative of civilisation and the disciplining methods of the civilised institution.

 

 

(3)   Friday, 18^th October at 3pm.

Department of Geography, University of Victoria, B.C.

 

Title:

The Ship of Fools as a Place of Spectacle, Healing, and Education where the Wild are Sent to Die

 

 

Abstract:
The Medieval European allegory of the Ship of Fools was more than a metaphor or a literary ruse to critique the Church and the state. In Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault argues that this trope was also a real socio-political tactic used to cleanse the civilised space by isolating the “mad” or the “unreasonable” from “society”. For civilisation, “reason” has two constituents: raison d’être and sanity. The sane are here defined as those existing for the purpose of domestication in a “natural” food chain hierarchy. In this sense, “society” consists of those working for the “reason” of domestication and socio-economic hierarchy, exploitation, and consumption and those who cannot or refuse to abide by the domesticator’s definition of their reason for existence are either sent to sanatoriums, hospitals, or other correctional facilities to be cured or killed.

Drawing from the research conducted for her book, Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (2013), Layla AbdelRahim discusses schools and children’s culture as spaces of such isolation and “correction”: where the wild raison d’être to dream and to exist for one’s own, known or unbeknownst to self purpose is extinguished and where the child is taught to exist to serve as a human resource in the chain of exploitation of nonhuman resources.

 

 

(4)   Saturday, 12^th October at 7pm

Spartacus Books, Vancouver, B.C.

 

Title:

The Ingrained Premises of Injustice in the Unknowledge Sold as Education

 

Abstract:

In this discussion, Layla will draw on the research conducted for her book Wild Children –Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education, in which she examines the underlying premises in the construction of knowledge that the institution of education produces and proliferates. The first premise is that knowledge of others must be organised and based on “classification” of forms of life and nonlife. Hence, in monotheistic narratives, God creates groups of beings on different days and, in science, classification is the primary organising principle of knowledge. Knowing the self and the world by relating to individuals as members and representatives of an epistemological “class” fosters alienation from and ignorance of the real experiences of others and provides a system of oppression of whole groups of human and nonhuman beings. In other words, epistemological classification establishes economic classes, where some control the power and agency over the construction of “knowledge” while the others constitute “resources” to be domesticated and colonised by such knowledge and exploited as labour force and the source of pleasure and well-being for the “ruling” classes. Therefore, examining and critiquing how unknowledge about what is human or nonhuman is produced and reproduced through schooling and other cultural narratives is critical to overcoming gender, racial, and speciesist oppression.

 

 

(5) Tuesday, 15^th October at 7pm. Camas Books, Victoria, B.C.:

 

Title:
What’s in a Class? On Reproduction of Gender, Species, and Ethnicity as Categories for Labour and Consumption

Abstract:

How do we know the world? How do we relate to the world and to our knowledge of it? Today, most people around the world believe that we cannot learn how to live in the world without having gone to school and received an “education”. However, what is this “education”? What is its content, its method, or its purpose?

Education is a systemic production, reproduction, and transmission of specific socio-economic constructs about humans, society, and the world. These constructs are then passed on as “knowledge”, which ensures the coexistence of epistemological classes as socio-economic classes in a hierarchical paradigm. Civilised science prioritises Cartesian thinking that divorces “reason” from “emotions” precisely because empathy with the exploited, the suffering, or the consumed will interfere with the project Civilisation.

In this conversation, Layla will discuss the underlying premises in scientific thinking about the world as a system of domestication of human and nonhuman resources for production, reproduction, consumption, and ultimately devastation.

 

 

(6) Sunday, 13^th October, 2013

Purple Thistle, Vancouver, B.C.

 

Title:

The Insidious and Resilient Narratives of Domestication: Pitfalls to Watch for in Autonomous Learning Zones

 

Abstract:

What better weekend than ‘Thanksgiving’ to Join Layla AbdelRahim on her book tour for ‘Wild Children-Domesticated Dreams’, as she talks about colonization, domestication, and the challenge of not reproducing these mechanisms as we strive towards de-schooling.

Not only has the hierarchical project of domestication and civilization existed for the past ten thousand years, it has been expanding globally, engulfing more and more territories and bringing the world to a state nearing the brink of collapse of biodiversity and self-sustainability. This colonizing project has not been accepted passively. It has met strong ideological, epistemological, socio-economic, and physical resistance on both individual and social levels. Nonetheless, civilization has reached an epidemic level largely owing to its misconstruction of “knowledge” about human nature and the world. In her research, Layla AbdelRahim applies concepts from biology, anthropology, ethology, and sociology to examine the mechanisms by which socio-cultural narratives and material cultures reproduce themselves through domesticated bodies, minds, and desires. In this workshop, Layla will identify these mechanisms of perpetuating domesticated “unknowledge” and will engage a discussion on resistance to its narrative.

 

(7) Tuesday, 22^nd October, 2013

New Moon Collective, Olympia, WA

 

Title:

Children at the Forefront of the War of Civilization over Colonization of Resources

 

Abstract:

Battling their own oppression and fighting against unjust systems for the wider public good, Anarchist and other activist parents often do not have the time to allot to rewilding their own parenting culture and thus relegate the task of child rearing to institutions or other civilized child-care. In this workshop, Layla will address the questions raised in her latest book, Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood Publishing, 2013) pertaining to the real cost of parenting and child-rearing and the implications of the civilized predatory socio-environmental relationships on children, their culture, and thereby on the world.

 

 

(8) Wednesday, 23^rd October, 2013

Black Coffee Coop, Seattle, WA

A talk on Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood, 2013).

 

 

(9) Friday, 25^th October, 2013

Red and Black Café, Portland, OR

A talk on Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood, 2013).

 

 

(10) Tuesday, 29^th October, 2013.

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana

A talk on Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (Fernwood, 2013).

 

 

Titre en Français :

Qu’est-ce que l’économie civilisée? ou Recherches sur le principe ontologique de l’effondrement économique et écologique

Title in English :

What is Civilised Economy? An essay on the ontological principle of economic and ecological collapse

 

Abstract:

The ontological foundation of civilised economy is rooted in utilitarianism or the conception of the world and everything in it as existing in a hierarchy of food chain. This has not been the view in wild or nondomesticated societies, where living and nonliving beings exist for their own purpose, pleasure, and being. A complex epistemological exercise has emerged out of the Neolithic culture, one that attributes a utilitarian purpose to all living and nonliving elements on earth. Since this “knowledge” places the human animal at the head of this food chain, it institutionalises an anthropocentric culture of subsistence thereby creating a civilised system of socio-environmental and socio-economic relationships based on the right to exploit, own, and consume. Civilised culture thus institutionalises discrimination and slavery as it identifies and categorises groups of natural or labour resources. For instance, some human and nonhuman animals become resources for work (any business or academic institution can boast a department of “human resources”); others are depicted as existing for consumption by humans; plants as well as human and nonhuman women become the reproductive “class” responsible for the reproduction of “resources”, etc.

Hierarchical models for socio-economic relations based on this principle of consumption and exploitation are inherently unviable for several reasons. First, such strategies for subsistence disregard the need for diversity and are inherently monocultural. Second, domestication always requires borrowing energy from outside sources in order to force exploitation from “resources” and thus drives an economic culture of deficit. Third, because of this constantly growing deficit, domestication fuels civilisation and ultimately requires to constantly produce more domesticated “resources” than its biosphere can sustain and, at the same time, has to destroy diversity in order to colonise the domesticated resources. Ultimately, domestication yields settlements that grow into cities that constantly require new sources of energy: i.e. the mode of subsistence of cities (which are by their nature civilised) relies on a socio-economic model that needs a perpetual expansion of colonised territories in the form of tamed and consumed wilderness, working bodies, and will-less minds.

This paper proposes to examine the epistemological foundation of civilised economies from an anarcho-primitivist perspective as it critiques the ontological root of civilisation and explores how civilised ontology forges a structure for socio-economic and socio-environmental relationships that are based on violence, extermination, and rape, manifesting itself in the current anthropogenic deforestation, acidification of the oceans, mass extinction of biodiversity and species, among others. Finally, it offers insights into why Eurocentric science and philosophy are incapable of addressing these problems and invites to consider critiques from outside the academy and the civilised model.

Paper delivered at:

“Creuser jusqu’où? Les limites de la croissance”

1er colloque du CRITIC 13 mai 2013 – HEC Montréal Salle « Banque de Développement du Canada »

 

10h: Mot de bienvenue et introduction du colloque

 

10h15: Les habits neufs de l’extractivisme

•Ariane Gobeil : Vers un néo-extractivisme à la québécoise ?

•Chantal Gailloux : Les Organismes de Coopération Internationale au service de l’industrie minière

•Philippe Blackburn : Exploitation des ressources naturelles et urgences humanitaires en Afrique Centrale

 

11h45 : Pause déjeuner

 

12h45 : Remises en question de la marchandisation de la planète

•Charles Beaudoin : Industrie minière et contestation populaire. Le cas de Sept-Îles

•Martin Hébert : Les temps de crise ouvrent-ils les esprits ? Réflexions sur le secteur forestier québécois au terme d’une décennie de tourmente

•Paul Sabourin : Croissance économique ou décroissance économique : le degré zéro d’une appropriation sociale de l’économie

 

14h15 : Pause café14h30 : Quelles alternatives à l’exploitation industrielle de la nature ?

•Jonathan Durand-Folco : Les trois significations du Plan vert : modernisation ou dépassement du capitalisme ?

•Émilie Bernier : « Pour la ruine du monde ».  Les ambivalences de la métaphysique moderne de l’agir

•Layla AbdelRahim : Qu’est-ce que l’économie civilisée? Recherche sur le principe ontologique de l’effondrement économique et écologique

 

16h : Pause café

 

16h30 : Creuser jusqu’où ? Synthèse et poursuite des discussions

•Table ronde avec Serge Mongeau, Jacques Fortin et Alain Deneault

17h30 : Fin du colloque