
Chantal Noa
transdisciplinary scholar, storyteller, and educator

I am a transdisciplinary scholar, storyteller, and educator at the intersection of ecology, spirituality, and religion. My work explores the environmental significance of Indigenous and decolonial perspectives on multispecies ontology and personhood. South African born and raised in an ethnically mixed family, I identify as a transnational scholar that forms part of the Global Majority.
In 2021 I graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). My dissertation was a narrative-based analysis of decolonial approaches to environmental engagement focused on the ontological ambiguity of human-animal relationships in hunter-gatherer cosmology in southern Africa.
Prior to completing my Ph.D., I spent twenty years working in documentary film, educational media, and communications across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. I received a B.A. in film production from AFDA in South Africa and an M.A. in Middle Eastern History from Tel-Aviv University.
I am currently an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Randolph-Macon College, Adjunct Faculty at CIIS, and the co-founder of the Deep-Water Initiative educational non-profit.
I reside in Afton, Virginia, on the traditional homelands and waterways of the Monacan Nation.