Video: We Cannot Imagine Otherwise: Capitalist Personalities, Plotlines, & Promises of Salvation, Dr. Andrea Jain

In conversation with Gnoseologies host, Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani, Dr. Andrea Jain, expands the boundaries of what currently counts as “knowledge” starting with diagnosing the social systemic dynamics that shape what we can and cannot imagine. In this talk, Andrea Jain discussed how capitalism, which currently enjoys unchallenged domination of the planet while also bringing about its demise, limits what we are capable of asking, thinking, and knowing as well as the kinds of relationships we can cultivate with ourselves, other humans, and other-than-human life.

Andrea R. Jain, Ph.D. is professor of religious studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis, editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and author of Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (Oxford 2014) and Peace Love Yoga: The Politics of Global Spirituality (Oxford, 2020). She received her doctorate degree in religious studies from Rice University in 2010. She writes about capitalism, religion, sex, and society in our contemporary world. Jain’s current work, including the book project and documentary film Predation, offers an anti-capitalist critique that centers questions about our current planetary crisis with special attention to the relationships between human and non-human animals.