Looking back at the Conceptualizing Ecocide Conference at Utrecht University, October 1-3, 2025

This inter- and transdisciplinary conference, co-organized by Susanne Knittel with the UU Conceptualising Ecocide Project,  brought together over 50 speakers from around the world and across disciplines to critically engage with the emerging concept of ecocide and its legal, political, historical, and cultural ramifications.

The conference kicked off with an insightful roundtable on teaching about ecocide in the interdisciplinary classroom and the premiere of the video recording of This Is Not A Trial, which was accompanied by a moving live performance by our wonderful collaborators, the poet Emma Zuiderveen and Pollif Projects (artist duo Mirthe Dokter and Tim Hammer).

On the second and third day some of the highlights included the three brilliant keynotes: Damien Short examined the social construction of ecocide law and the genocide-ecocide nexus; Julia Suárez-Krabbe reflected on decolonial justice and liberation through the lens of Mother Earth, and Radha D’Souza offered a powerful critique of the Western legal system in her keynote on Ecocide, Genocide, Juriscide?: Learning Law from History. And the powerful discussions in the panels Ecocide on the Frontlines and Pluralizing the Impacts of Ecocide: the one focused on urgent case studies from Laos and Cambodia, the Amazon, and Patagonia, while the other explored how environmental destruction intersects with culture, language, and epistemology—examining ecocide as epistemicide, linguicide, and the erasure of memory and meaning. This was the panel where EcoViolence postdoc Ifor Duncan presented his paper “Conceptualising Ecocide, the Hidroituango Megadam, and the declaration of the Cauca River as a Victim of Political Violence in Colombia”.

The conference concluded with an excellent final roundtable on Evidence, Imagery, and Investigation, which brought together researchers and practitioners to discuss how new technologies—from satellite imagery to digital archives—can help document ecocide and hold perpetrators accountable. With the incredible presentation by Agata Nguyen Chuong & Omar Ferwati on “Bush Encroachment: Ongoing Ecocide and Genocide in Namibia”.

A huge thank you to all speakers, participants, and partners who made it possible! 

Special thanks to Carolina Sanchez De Jaegher, Michaela Mastropietro, and Pathways to Sustainability at Utrecht University!

Fotos by Susanne Knittel, Ifor Duncan, and Kári Driscoll.