Derrick Jensen is the acclaimed author of fifteen books, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. Author, teacher, activist, small farmer and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, he has been hailed as the philosopher poet of the environmental movement.

His premise is as profound as it is persistent: industrial civilization is inherently unsustainable. It will always require violence to biotic and human communities. And it will create a culture where trauma is normalized, where living beings become objects, and where the only relationship left is one of domination. He has packed university auditoriums, conferences, and bookstores across the nation, stirring them with revolutionary spirit.
Derrick Jensen asks, “Do you believe this culture will undergo a voluntary transformation to a sane and sustainable way of living? If you don’t, and you care about life on this planet, what does that mean for your strategy and tactics? The answer is that we don’t know because we don’t talk about it.” Derrick talks about it. Weaving together history, philosophy, environmentalism, economics, literature and psychology to produce a powerful argument and a passionate call for action, he points toward concrete solutions by focusing on our most primal human desire: to live on a healthy earth overflowing with uncut forests, clean rivers and thriving oceans that are not under the constant threat of being destroyed.
About the Edelman Lecture
When the late Portland architect and photographer, Alfred Edelman, taught three-dimensional design at PNCA he challenged his students to consider the principles of engineering, kinetics, physics and other subjects seemingly dissimilar to art. In doing so he brought the outside world into his classroom. Founded by Carol Edelman, the Alfred Edelman Lecture was created to enhance the student’s understanding of the visual world by presenting timeless and/or unique ways to examine and manipulate three-dimensional space; and to be a catalyst for lively discussions in the classroom at PNCA.

Co-sponsored by the new MFA in Collaborative Design.
Special thanks to Hot Lips Pizza and Widmer Brothers Brewing.

Environmental Activist Derrick Jensen gives the 2011 Edelman Lecture, “Civilization and Resistance.” March 9, 2011.