Thomas Mann House | 19.00 Uhr (PT)

Ein Gespräch zwischen Thomas Mann Distinguished Visitor Darya Tsymbalyuk und Ursula K. Heise.

*Diese Veranstaltung findet in englischer Sprache statt*

From Kyiv to Los Angeles, we have witnessed how environmental destruction has dramatically altered our understanding of home, place and belonging. To trace ways in which ecological grief is echoed and reckoned with across these different contexts, the Thomas Mann House- which recently reopened after the devastating Palisades Fire- presents a conversation between Darya Tsymbalyuk (UChicago) and Ursula Heise (UCLA). The conversation will open with Tsymbalyuk briefly introducing her recent book Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War (Polity, 2025) and sharing poignant accounts of witnessing ecocide in her homeland of Ukraine. Drawing connections between Ukrainian experiences, the scarred lands of the Pacific Palisades, and beyond, Tsymbalyuk and Heise will discuss the loss of cherished places and examine the role of storytelling and cultural imaginations in ways of inhabiting the damaged Earth and envisioning possible futures.

Darya Tsymbalyuk's residency is part of a collaboration with Kyiv to LA, a cross-cultural initiative that invites Ukrainian artists, researchers, and art historians to participate in a residency and public program in Los Angeles. Organized by Independent Curator Asha Bukojemsky, the project marks a collaborative framework with several Los Angeles organization, including the Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House; 18th Street Arts Center; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Los Angeles (ICA LA); GRI Scholars Program; California Institute of Technology (Caltech); The Center for European and Russian Studies, UCLA; Los Angeles Filmforum; and e-flux in New York, amongst others. Kyiv to LA is made possible by a generous grant from Nora Mcneely Hurley and Manitou Fund.

Attendance by invitation only.

Teilnehmer:innen

Ursula K. Heise holds the Marcia H. Howard Term Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. She is co-founder and current Director of the Lab for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS). Her research and teaching focus on the environmental humanities; contemporary environmental literature, arts, and cultures in the Americas, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Vietnam; literature and science; science fiction; and narrative theory. Her books include, among others, Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species (University of Chicago Press, 2016), which won the 2017 book prize of the British Society for Literature and Science. She is co-editor of The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities (Routledge, 2017), and co-editor of the series Literatures, Cultures, and the Environment with Palgrave.

Darya Tsymbalyuk writes, researchers and makes images, and her work lies at the intersection of environmental humanities and critical-creative practice. She is the author of the book Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War (Polity, 2025). Darya serves as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU), University of Chicago.