Rethink Life
Mother, Artist, Author, Professor, Action-Philosopher, Environmental-Justice Organizer
Cara Judea Alhadeff, PhD has published dozens of interdisciplinary books and articles on critical philosophy, climate justice, art, epigenetics, gender, sexuality, and ethnic studies. Alhadeff’s theoretical and visual work is the subject of documentaries for international films and public television. She has been interviewed by The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Pacifica Radio, NPR, and the New Art Examiner. Alongside Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Vandana Shiva, Alhadeff received the Random Kindness Community Resilience Leadership Award, 2020.
Alhadeff’s work has been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Karen Barad, Bill McKibben, James E. Hansen, Eve Ensler, Avital Ronell, David Orr, Alphonso Lingus, Lucy Lippard, SHKG Humpty Hump, Henry Giroux, Paul Hawken, and many other scholars, scientists, and artists. Former professor of Philosophy, Performance, and Pedagogy at UC Santa Cruz and Program Director for Jews of The Earth, Alhadeff and her family live in their eco-art installation repurposed schoolbus where they perform and teach creative-zero-waste living, social permaculture, and cultural diversity.
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Interdisciplinary Books by Cara
“Alhadeff’s work is a fascinating fusion of art and scholarship. Intricate theoretical text is paralleled by unexpected photographic imagery – sensuous, enigmatic and layered. ”
“Zazu Dreams reclaims the power of language as both a poetic intervention into politics and storytelling and as a powerful force for reclaiming the radical imagination. It moves across interdisciplinary borders, collapses genres, unsettles how we think about [ourselves and] the planet.”
~ Dr. Henry Giroux
Reviews for Cara's Publications
“Impressive.”
Dr. Noam Chomsky
“Compelling.”
Eve Ensler
“What an oeuvre... What a trajectory... Astonishing!”
Paul Hawken
“thoughtfully and colorfully addresses the crucial need for young people to address empathy for humanity and all of life.”
Dr. James E. Hansen
“Fabulous! A powerful and visionary story wonderfully told and beautifully illustrated.”
David W. Orr
“... radical engagement with embodied democracy... bold and remarkable boundary-crossing...”
Dr. Avital Ronell
PORTFOLIO
Visual Art by Cara
Cara’s analog color photographs focus on industrial society’s fossil-fuel addictions. Her images play with the relationship of petroculture to both institutionalized body phobia and our ambiguous complicity within these economies of disconnection.
Because both my visual and theoretical explorations emphasize the intersection between biodiversity and cultural diversity, extraordinarily varied habitats are integral to my photographic work. Portraits within these environments explore symbiotic natural-world models that can provoke the possibility of transitioning from anthropocentrism and environmental racism to a social permaculture. I aim to use my photographs to elicit deep attention to what already exists—an attunement to our interrelationships with the non-human world. Collaborating with artists and scientists from multiple disciplines is critical to my working process.
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More Reviews for Cara's Publications
“...a beautiful example of keeping our work and play focused on our most crucial mission, securing our survival and our freedom.”
SHKG/Humpty-Hump
“...absolutely fascinating...extraordinary fusion of fanciful allegory, childhood perception, ecological prophesy, and sociological parable...”
James Wines
“...the door to adult reflection is open by a child guide...Zazu faces the worst of humanity, while simultaneously basking in the beauty that constantly amazes and surrounds us...”
Antonia Juhasz
“...reclaims the power of language...radical imagination...brilliant!”
Dr. Henry Giroux
“...Remarkably unafraid...”
Dr. Stephanie Seneff
“...a creative and marvelous new world.”
Dr. Claire Colebrook
“...very originally crafted and beautifully illustrated.”
Dr. Karen Barad
“...Amazing research!...”
Arun Gandhi
“What an oeuvre…What a trajectory…Astonishing!”
Paul Hawken
“...a fascinating book…a real cosmic adventure–through space, time, and the human heart.”
Bill McKibben
“...thoughtfully and colorfully addresses the crucial need for yound people to develop empathy for humanity and all life.”
James E. Hansen
“Intellectually rigorous and esthetically daring…hard work, and worth it.”
Lucy Lippard
“Important work by an artist who is as unflinching with her camera and as she is with her pen.”
Robert Mailer Anderson
“..sensuous, as well as ruthless, intelligence…”
Dr. Sarah K. Rich
“A tour de force, whose intellectual . . . bravura will stun the reader.”
Dr. Sigrid Hackenberg
“...radical engagement with embodied democracy…bold and remarkable boundary-crossing…”
Dr. Avital Ronell
“..enormous energy and theoretical appetite…unlimitedly ambitious and vulnerable…opens a new perspective on justice and democracy.”
Dr. Alphonso Lingis
“A thoughtful, insightful, meaningful exploration of so many of the dimensions of what it is to be human in this world. Brilliant!”
Thom Hartmann