Radical Visions Reconnecting Academia and Nature: A Community Truth, Reckoning and Right Relationship was a two-day, student-led convergence aimed at advancing climate justice, community resistance, and community resilience by digging into the deeper systems that shape how we learn, how we teach, how we act, and who our education ultimately serves.
This convergence was an outcome and inspired by the Truth Reckoning and Right Relationship with the Great Lakes that was also held at moCa Cleveland in 2023/2024, proving that these gatherings do have a ripple effect, especially in a local place based community. Radical Visions was a collaboration between students and faculty from several educational institutions and also community organizations and residents in the Great Lake Erie Southern Shore Bioregion. This was not just an academic or climate event, it was a reckoning with the structures that disconnect us from each other, from our histories, and from the natural world by what we are taught.
Here is series of videos covering these two days in March 2026. These videos feature the wonderful presentations on a variety of topics including militant apathy in our higher education institutions, roundtables on regenerative food systems, technology and AI, and much more. CELDF will also be releasing a Truth, Reckoning, and Right Relationship Toolkit in the coming months to help other place based groups host similar community building convergences.
Let’s start with the following short teaser!
In keeping with our commitment to provide continued content about the Radical Visions Reconnecting Academia and Nature: A Community Truth, Reckoning and Right Relationship event, we have the produced the following highlight video so you can share in the experience along with everyone that was there.
This Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship Convergence round table discussion on “Right Relationship with Education, Technology, and Nature?” features Stormy Sweitzer, PhD, MBA, MPH, The Illuminated Futures Project; Peter J. Whitehouse MD-PhD, Professor of Neurology, and Professor of Psychiatry, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Organizational Behavior; and Sharvi Agrawal, a third-year undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University studying Cognitive Science, Public Health, and Philosophy.
This Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship Convergence discussion on “Academic Education vs Knowledge & Wisdom” features Sundance, Executive Director of American Indian Movement-Cleveland.
This Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship Convergence discussion on “Truth and Exploration – Something in the Way: The Crisis & Disconnect in Contemporary Wackamedia” features Mike Scladany speaking on “Crisis”, Kamrya Plicka and Rachel Cunningham addressing “Militant Apathy”, Miriam Soliman speaking on “Structure”, and Ahhmad Dibb addressing “Ethical and Moral Consequences”.
This Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship Convergence Roundtable on “What Kinds of Education make it Possible to Learn with Land, Food and Living Systems?” brings together Len Rincon Martinez: a student who left the conventional path to pursue sustainable farming, Kelly Clark: a former high school teacher who now runs a regenerative farm school, and Nárcisz Fejes: CWRU faculty member working within a research-focused institution. This panel examines the openings and limits of contemporary schooling, especially in systems that privilege measurable results over lived process.
This Truth, Reckoning & Right Relationship Convergence panel discussion on “Making Inroads in Immersive Learning – From Classroom to Community to Nature” features Karl Wheatley, Alison Bomgardner, Sarah Akovic, and Mariam Soliman. With Mariam Soliman, a CSU student facilitating. They cover how to scale new radical approaches to education, starting in the classroom, moving to the community, nature and ultimately ourselves.
Stay tuned for more videos!
