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MOTH Program

@moth_rights

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NYU More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program is an initiative advancing rights & well-being for humans, nonhumans & the web of life that sustains us all

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Thank you to everyone who joined us at NYU London last month for the fourth installment of our Global Course on More-Than-Human Rights 🦋🪲 it was a joy to explore more-than-human perspectives with you all!

Thank you also to our wonderful teachers: Yuvan Aves (@a_naturalists_column), Carlos Andrés Baquero Díaz, James Bulley (@jjbulley), Emma Crowe, Jacqueline Gallant, César Rodríguez Garavito, Patricia Gualinga (@patygualinga), Yadvinder Malhi, Marina Otero Verzier, Alessandro Pelizzon, Mohammad Saud, Nadeem Shehzad, Christine Webb (@cwebb218) 🍃

The Global Course on More-Than-Human Rights is an intensive five-day course designed to impart students with the essential elements of rights of nature / more-than-human rights law and contemporary practices and thinking associated with the MOTH paradigm 🕸️

Sign up to our newsletter (link in bio) to be the first to hear about the next installment of the course, which will be taking place in 2027 🐋 by @moth_rights

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2 months ago

Introducing the NYU MOTH Fellowship 2027 Cohort ✨

The Fellowship is both a professional development opportunity for promising practitioners and scholars and a space for creative incubation of actionable initiatives for improved relations with the more-than-human world 🦋

This year’s theme is reciprocity with the rest of the more-than-human world: How can we live and work in more relational and reciprocal ways with the more-than-human world? How might we give back to the rest of nature for all it has given us? 🍄

Over the next twelve months, fellows will cultivate generative connections across disciplines, develop innovative projects, and deepen the skills and practices that enhance their ability to contribute meaningfully to this burgeoning field. Rooted in collaboration, the program brings fellows together to exchange their work, brainstorm ideas, and chart new paths forward as a community 🕸️

Visit mothlife.org/moth-fellowship to learn more and stay tuned as we share updates over the next few months 🍃

🖌️ Art by @elena_landinez by @moth_rights

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4 months ago

Thank you for joining us at the 2026 MOTH Festival of Ideas in London 🍃

We are deeply grateful for your presence and participation during this special gathering - and for your continued interest in helping advance the rights, interests, and well-being of nonhumans, humans, and the web of life that sustains us all 🕸️

Each of you played a crucial role in shaping what the Festival of Ideas was intended to be: a space for connection, creativity, and imagination 💫

We look forward to staying connected and building upon the momentum we have created together 🦋 by @moth_rights

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5 months ago

César Rodríguez-Garavito shared his perspective on the ethical implications of using AI to communicate with animals in this recent article published on Bloomberg UK 🐋

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🔗 Read the full story: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-04/ai-s-next-ethical-dilemma-should-humans-talk-to-animals by @moth_rights

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3 days ago

💡 Latest publications on the MOTH Ideas Hub…

🌾 In "Nature is a political actor" Ricardo Abramovay discusses how more-than-human rights have a crucial role to play in both emerging technology and sustainable agriculture.

🍃 In "Michel Serres and the reinvention of ecological thought" Peter Johnson explores what kind of revolutionary thinking is needed in our time of crisis.

🐋 In "Saving the whales may save us: How whales bring communities together" Genevieve Pfeiffer reflects on whether migratory orcas might teach us ways to find one another and form communities in the face of obstacles.

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📔 Read the full articles on the MOTH Ideas Hub mothlife.org/ideas-hub (link in bio)

🖌️ Artworks by @elena_landinez and @florascottwallace by @moth_rights

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5 days ago

💧 What does it mean to imagine a river as a living being with its own stories, memories and even rights?

This question runs through Water Body and our collaboration with MOTH, an interdisciplinary initiative advancing rights and wellbeing for humans, more-than-humans and the web of life that sustains us. After Barney @barnaby.steel joined MOTH’s Festival of Ideas in London earlier this year, the conversation continues in Water Body, with MOTH’s research and legal advocacy woven into the work.

The installation features a series of commissioned drawings by Elena Landinez that bring London’s hidden waterways into view, alongside stories of rivers around the world. It draws on the Minganie Municipality and Innu Council of Ekuanitshit resolutions recognising the rights of the Magpie (Muteshekau Shipu) River; Spanish Congress Law 19/2022 concerning the Mar Menor; and the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) legislation.

As Robert Macfarlane asks in Water Body:
“What if we were to imagine rivers once more as beings with lives, deaths, and even with rights — as life givers, memory keepers, as storytellers?”

🦋 @moth_rights
✍️ Drawings by Elena Landinez @elena_landinez
🎙️ Words by Robert Macfarlane @robgmacfarlane
Water Body · 3–18 October · St Martin-in-the-Fields · LFF Expanded

𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘉𝘰𝘥𝘺, 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟨, 𝘜𝘒
In collaboration with @robgmacfarlane , @jjbulley & @ludmillaceramics

#waterbody #LFF #Bfi #MarshmallowLaserFeast #RightsOfNature by @moth_rights

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10 days ago

César Rodríguez Garavito during a recent event on more-than-human rights at Mexico City's Museum of Contemporary Art (@muac_unam) 🍃🐋

Visit our website mothlife.org (link in bio) for more! by @moth_rights

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11 days ago

"I would be much less concerned if we had general principles on what can and cannot be done with AI. There’s nothing like that, and this is why we’re having to develop them from scratch based on what’s been done in other fields of legal practice.”

César Rodríguez-Garavito shared his reservations about AI and why MOTH developed the PEPP Framework in a recent article on animal communication technologies published in The Guardian.

The PEPP (Prepare, Engage, Prevent, and Protect) Framework is the first set of legal and ethical principles for the responsible development and deployment of nonhuman animal communication technologies 🐋

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🔗 Read the full story: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/sep/22/animal-language-recordings-ai

🔗 Learn more about the PEPP Framework: https://www.ouranimalkin.com (link in bio) by @moth_rights

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13 days ago

Last month the MOTH team was in Mexico City to move forward our work on the protection of whales and connect with partner organizations focusing on advancing more-than-human rights in the region. A few highlights of our visit:

🐋 An event at the Museum of Contemporary Art (@muac_unam) combining whale sounds, audiovisual materials, a scientific and legal lecture, and a conversation with the audience - discussing whether whales could speak in court, and whether science, law, and politics are truly prepared to listen to them. With the participation of Nora Cabrera (@noracabreravelasco) from Nuestro Futuro (@nuestrofuturoac), César Rodríguez Garavito (MOTH), Alejandra Labastida (@alejandralabastida) as well as MUAC representatives and artists

💧 What happens when a river becomes a co-author? A panel conversation at UNAM (@unam_mx) focusing on authorship and river rights, with the participation of composer Elisa Schmelkes (@schmelkes) who created a polyphonic song with the Magdalena River in Mexico City, as well as Rodrigo Gutiérrez Rivas (IIJ UNAM), Ángel Cabrera (CEC)(@cecsj_scjn), and César Rodríguez Garavito. This event was part of our RiverSong initiative, developed in collaboration with Elisa Schmelkes, writer and MOTH collective member Robert Macfarlane (@robgmacfarlane), singer and composer Lydia Samuels (@lydia__samuels), as well as lyricists, musicians, and river-right advocates from all around the world

🦋 A visit to “Desde el umbral”, the beautiful exhibition that MUAC is currently hosting on more-than-human rights, visited by Ministro Irving Espinosa from the Mexican Supreme Court - featuring an artwork by MOTH collective member Elena Landinez (@elena_landinez) and César Rodríguez Garavito

We’re grateful for all our partners and collaborators in Mexico City who made these events possible, and look forward to our next visit!

📷 Photo of Ministro Irving Espinosa by Brenda Arias, del Centro de Estudios Constitucionales y Saberes Jurídicos de la Suprema Corte
📷 All other photos by @gustavograf_ by @moth_rights

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16 days ago

César Rodríguez-Garavito recently discussed the dangers of expanding the concept of more-than-human rights to AI models with Esteban Hoyos, the Dean of EAFIT Law School in Medellín, Colombia, for the Spanish newspaper El País 🗞️

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🔗 Read the full story: https://elpais.com/america-colombia/2026-09-12/cesar-rodriguez-garavito-una-ia-con-derechos-puede-llevar-a-resultados-catastroficos.html

🔗 And in case you missed it, the translated interview was published in the latest MOTH Dispatch, available on our website: https://mothlife.org/article/ai-rights-and-wrongs/ (link in bio) by @moth_rights

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a month ago

Should we treat AI models as persons with rights? For those of us working on human rights and the rights of nature, the question has become inescapable.

In the latest edition of The MOTH Dispatch, César Rodríguez-Garavito shares a few initial thoughts on this topic, from his interview in El País.

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A new monthly editorial newsletter of the MOTH Program at NYU School of Law, The MOTH Dispatch chronicles the ongoing shift toward protecting the rights and wellbeing of the more-than-human world. Join us as we weave ideas, actions, and stories from our work across the globe 🪲

Visit mothlife.org/ideas-hub (link in bio) to read the full article and sign up to the newsletter 📖 by @moth_rights

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a month ago

💡 Latest publications on the MOTH Ideas Hub…

💧 In "The river is not dead: Care, culture, and the Bogotá hydrocommons" Lisa Blackmore, Laura Giraldo Martínez, Juliana Steiner Fraser (entre—ríos) highlight why restoring human relationships with rivers must focus on local agency and ecological entanglement, not just large-scale industrial intervention.

🌳 In "Entwined fates: Forests, cenotes, and pigs in Mexico’s Yucatan" Mia MacDonald and Isis Alvarez discuss whether focusing on pigs could help protect forests and secure rights for the non-human world.

🍃 In "Purpose, place, and Indigeneity" Gustaf Palm explores how Indigeneity is a relational ontology, a reclaiming of ecological belonging, and the antidote to modern desire.

🦋 In "The wasteland is enchanted" Siddharth Unnithan Kumar reflects on how openness to ourselves is the first step toward communion with the world around us.

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📔 Read the full articles on the MOTH Ideas Hub mothlife.org/ideas-hub (link in bio)

🖌️ Artworks by @elena_landinez and @florascottwallace by @moth_rights

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2 months ago