By Cara Judea Alhadeff, PhD. Eifrig Publishing, 2024.

Merging fictional and nonfictional worlds, Zazu Dreams: Between the Scarab and the Dung Beetle, A Cautionary Fable for the Anthropocene Era is a climate chaos adventure fable and resource encyclopedia that explores the relationships among cross-cultural spiritualities, socio-political diversity, and biodiversity. In his dreams, Zazu, an Arab-Jewish boy, travels the globe on a humpback whale, crossing vast time and space. Learning from scientists, healers, engineers, architects, philosophers, musicians, and artists, many of whom are refugees and all historical figures, the characters become aware of how ecological relationships are bound to humanitarian crises. In each country they visit, they witness historic examples of social permaculture among humans and within our natural world; how ancient technologies and ancestral wisdoms can transform our industrial-waste, self-destructive modern infrastructures. Endorsed by Karen Barad, James E.Hansen, Eve Ensler, Stephanie Seneff, Noam Chomsky, David Orr, Arun Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson), Shock G Humpty Hump, Rabbi Lerner, Claire Colebrook, Paul Hawken, and Bill McKibben among other activists, artists, and scientists, the updated edition of the book came out last year with a Foreword by Vandana Shiva. Bridging theory and practice, Zazu Dreams demonstrates how everyday lives of the past can serve as models for future paradigm shifts. The characters, and with them the viewer, emerge from their journey with an important lesson: ancient stories can offer practical solutions to seemingly intractable challenges and converging crises and can empower us to address contemporary complexities of climate chaos and environmental racism. Zazu Dreams is currently used in undergraduate and graduate courses: Environmental Science, EcoAesthetics, Animal Studies, Disability Studies, Queer Ecology, Human Ecology, Environmental Communication, Cultural Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, Studies, Eco-Criticism, Food Studies, Philosophy, Evolutionary Biology, Social Justice and Peace Studies/ Conflict-Resolution Studies, Ethnic Studies, Ecotheologies, Interreligious / Interfaith Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Jewish Studies, Islamic Studies, Environmental Humanities, Sustainability Studies, Health Equity, Community Transformation, International Law and Human Rights.

Cara Judea Alhadeff, PhD, Professor of Transdisciplinary Collaboration, has published dozens of books and articles on interfaith climate justice, art, gender & sexuality, Jewish and ethnic studies including the critically-acclaimed Zazu Dreams: Between the Scarab and the Dung Beetle, A Cautionary Fable for the Anthropocene Era (Eifrig Berlin) and Viscous Expectations: Justice, Vulnerability, The Ob-scene (Penn State University Press). Alhadeff’s forthcoming book, Unlearning What We Think We Know (Vernon Press), will be performed during the World Affairs Conference. Her photographs/performance-videos are in private and public collections including MoMA Salzburg and San Francisco MoMA. Alongside Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Vandana Shiva, Alhadeff received the Random Kindness Community Resilience Leadership Award, 2020. Alhadeff’s theoretical and visual work is the subject of documentaries for international public television. Former professor of Performance & Pedagogy at UC Santa Cruz and founder of Radical Art in Action, Alhadeff teaches, performs, and parents a creative-zero-waste life.

For those of you interested in purchasing a signed and dedicated copy of Zazu Dreams: Between the Scarab and the Dung Beetle, A Cautionary Fable for the Anthropocene Era, please contact the author directly: photo@carajudea.com.