Chantal Noa
transdisciplinary scholar, storyteller, and educator
I am a transdisciplinary scholar, storyteller, and educator at the intersection of ecology, spirituality, and culture. My work explores the environmental significance of Indigenous and decolonial perspectives on multispecies ontology, more-than-human personhood, and cultural sovereignty. South African born and raised in an ethnically mixed family, I identify as a transnational scholar who forms part of the Global Majority (human and more-than-human).
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I graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religion from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), where I applied decolonial methods to a narrative-based analysis of the ontological ambiguity of human-animal relationships in hunter-gatherer cosmology in Southern Africa.
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Before completing my Ph.D., I spent twenty years working in social documentaries, environmental media, and agricultural communications across Africa, Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. 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.
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I am Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Randolph-Macon College and Adjunct Faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
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I reside in Afton, Virginia, on the traditional homelands and waterways of the Monacan Indian Nation.