MOTH Festival of Ideas 2026 — More-than-Human Philosophy

TL;DR A three-day philosophical festival exploring non-anthropocentric thought through Indigenous perspectives, ecological philosophy, and speculative futures—genuinely radical in its theoretical commitments.

Why it Matters

MOTH isn't another academic conference masquerading as a festival. Curated by NYU's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, it's explicitly committed to "more-than-human rights in theory"—a philosophical framework that challenges the human-centric assumptions baked into Western philosophy itself. This means serious engagement with Indigenous thought systems, ecological phenomenology, and frameworks that don't treat the non-human world as mere backdrop to human concerns.

The programming structure itself is philosophically significant: May 14 focuses on "Modes of Communicating Ideas for the more-than-human world" (4:00 PM–10:00 PM); May 15 on "Perceptions of the more-than-human world" (2:00 PM onwards); the festival culminates with Cosmo Sheldrake's concert (8:00 PM Friday)—a musician-composer whose work explicitly engages sound as a form of more-than-human communication. This isn't philosophy as lecture; it's philosophy as immersive, multi-sensory exploration.

The venue—The Nave at St. John's Waterloo—is architecturally significant: a sacred space transformed into a thinking space, which reinforces the festival's commitment to alternative epistemologies beyond secular rationalism.

Where and When

The Nave, St. John's Church, Waterloo
Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TY

Thursday, May 14 – Saturday, May 16, 2026 - May 14: 4:00 PM – 10:00 PM ("Modes of Communicating Ideas") - May 15: 2:00 PM onwards ("Perceptions of the more-than-human world") - May 15, 8:00 PM: Cosmo Sheldrake Concert

Access & Logistics

  • Tickets via Eventbrite (MOTH 2026 Festival of Ideas)
  • Multi-day passes available
  • The venue is accessible via London Underground (Waterloo station)
  • Expect an audience of serious theorists, artists, ecologically-minded intellectuals, and practitioners of non-Western philosophical traditions
  • Bring a notebook; the ideas will demand it

Insider Note: This is where London's philosophical avant-garde congregates. If you're tired of anthropocentric philosophy that treats the world as inert matter awaiting human interpretation, MOTH is non-negotiable. The inclusion of Indigenous philosophical frameworks (not as "case studies" but as legitimate knowledge systems) signals genuine intellectual decolonization, not performative gesturing.