“The seed is dormant but it’s there.”
–Manish Jain
What seeds led a Harvard-educated investment banker to uproot from a lifestyle he’d spent decades working towards, in order to set up India’s first university dedicated to the regeneration of local culture, local economy, and local ecology?
Manish Jain, a leading figure shaping the global unschooling movement, will join us for our June ‘We As Nature’ event to share his ‘story behind the story’. Together we’ll navigate the people and moments in Manish’s life that watered dormant seeds, sprouted shoots, and helped him embody nature. Not only did Manish turn away from Wall Street, but he turned towards creating a movement based on new models of unlearning that regenerate diverse knowledge systems, free cultural imaginations, and expand consciousness.
We hope you’ll join us for what will be another beautiful storytelling, networking opportunity and rethink of what it means to be human in a natural world.
Following the 20-minute story, participants are invited to stay and connect with 2-3 other attendees in a breakout room to share reflections and sparks of inspiration. In this way, we hope to create an opportunity for spontaneous conversations to arise – just as they might at in-person events!
This simple yet profound event offers a space to listen, engage in dialogue and envision possibilities for moving towards a flourishing world.
Date: 23rd June, 6:30pm – 7:30pm BST
We’re delighted that this We As Nature event is included in the month-long World Localization Day celebrations organised by Local Futures. #WLD2022 is an international event celebrating ecological economies, communities, and local food.
More about Manish
Manish Jain is deeply committed to regenerating our diverse local knowledge systems, cultural imaginations, and inter-cultural dialogue. Inspired by MK Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Ivan Illich, his illiterate village grandmother, his unschooled daughter, indigenous communities, and Jain spiritual philosophy, he is one of the leading planetary voices for deschooling our lives. He has served for the past 24 years as Chief Beaver-Ecosystems builder of Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development based in Udaipur, India and is co-founder of some of the most innovative educational experiments in the world – the Swaraj University, the Jail University, Complexity University, Hunarshala Tribal-versity, the Creativity Adda, the Learning Societies Unconference, the Walkouts-Walk-on network, Udaipur as a Learning City, the Families Learning Together network, Berkana Exchange. He co-launched the global Ecoversities Alliance with 300+ members in 40 countries. He is a senior advisor to the Economics of Happiness network for localisation. He has worked as a facilitator with Social Labs, Art of Hosting and World Cafe. He has served as guest faculty for Schumacher College (UK), National School of Drama-Theatre in Education (India) and for the Peace Boat (Japan). Manish has been invited to give inspiring public keynote speeches on Reimagining Education in many countries such as USA, England, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, India. He has edited several books on Vimukt Sheikhs (liberating learning) on themes such as hacking education, learning societies, unlearning, gift culture, community media, and tools for deep dialogue. Prior to this, Manish worked as one of the principal team members of the UNESCO Learning Without Frontiers global initiative in Paris Headquarters. He has also been a consultant to UNICEF, World Bank, USAID in Africa, South Asia and former Soviet Union. Manish worked as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley. He has been trying to unlearn his Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University and a B.A. in Economics, International Development and Political Philosophy from Brown University. He and his wife Vidhi have been unschooling themselves with their 20 year old daughter, Kanku, in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Manish is passionate about masti yoga, urban organic farming, filmmaking, simulation gaming, bicycling, ultimate frisbee, trekking, compassionate clowning, and slow food cooking.
Spaces are limited.
Please only register if you are able to attend live.
Flower illustration by Rohama Malik
