The Power of Ideas: An Ecofeminist Conversation with Patsy Hallen

Abstract: Patsy Hallen occupies an esteemed place in environmental and ecofeminist philosophy, due to her foundational scholarly contributions, her unique and widely influential work as an earth-centered teacher and mentor, and her decades of experience walking, camping, and sailing the stunning environs of Western Australia. We are honored to have organized an extraordinary symposium celebrating Patsy’s life and career in 2023, and to have developed this publication from the philosophical tributes from colleagues, friends and former students who presented there. On a clear, warm evening in mid-December we gathered in person and virtually on the campus of Murdoch University. We took the framework of “The Power of Ideas” as a guiding prompt, and as we gave our tributes to Patsy, we also engaged that theme through the context of the ongoing interlocked crises of global heating, environmental decline, the extinction crisis, and far too many social crises, but also inspired by the force of Patsy’s embodied, affirming, life-loving philosophy.