Facing Human Wrongs: Leading in the Metacrisis
Part of:
Depth Education Collection
Course description
The Invitation
We are living in a time of accelerating ecological, social, political, and institutional unraveling. Many of the assumptions that have shaped our understanding of leadership, progress, certainty, and success are becoming increasingly unstable. Leading in the Metacrisis is a six-week online inquiry for people who care deeply about the world they inhabit and sense that our usual ways of responding to crises are no longer sufficient.
Whether your leadership role is within an organization, a classroom, a neighborhood, a family, a community, or a place, this inquiry invites you to explore what it means to act with discernment, humility, and responsibility while familiar ways of making sense of the world begin to fray.
We use the word metacrisis to point toward what exists beneath the surface of visible crises, including a collapse of relational trust and a crisis of meaning, perception, and participation. In this course, the metacrisis is approached not simply as something happening around us, but as something happening within us. This inquiry, therefore, begins with a different set of questions:
- How have the stories of modernity shaped the way I understand myself, others, and the world?
- How do these stories shape the way I respond when certainty gives way to uncertainty?
- What other ways of relating become possible when those stories begin to loosen?
Learning objectives
Throughout the inquiry, leading is explored not as a position or identity, but as a relational practice of being present to what is, remaining curious about what may be unfolding, and offering what we have in response.
This inquiry does not seek to produce experts in the metacrisis or prescribe new leadership models. Nor does it promise transformation, resilience, or a step-by-step method. Instead, it offers an invitation to explore our relationship with ourselves, one another, and the more-than-human world; to stay with tensions, paradoxes, and contradictions that resist easy resolution; and to explore ways of relating that modernity has often obscured or pushed to the margins.
There is no expectation that participants arrive at shared conclusions or leave with the same answers.
This inquiry is an invitation to stay with what we notice.
Delivery
This is an asynchronous online course, meaning you'll engage with the content on your own schedule through UVic's online learning platform, Brightspace. The course is organized into weekly bundles.
This course has six facilitated optional online tutorial sessions. They will take place over Zoom on Saturdays from 8:30 to 10 am PST, starting on September 26, 2026. The Zoom sessions will be recorded, and you can watch the recordings if you are unable to attend.
Please note: September 19 is when course resources and instructions will become available on the Brightspace platform. The first Zoom session will follow on September 26, from 8:30 to 10 am PT. Live sessions will take place on Saturdays, from 8:30 to 10 am Pacific time (find your time here). Specific dates are September 26, October 3,10, 17, 24, 31.
Prerequisites
Students are strongly encouraged to have engaged with the work of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective via the course Facing Human Wrongs and/or Sensing Harm by Design or reading Hospicing Modernity.
We ask you take this self-assessment questionnaire to further assist you in determining whether the course, Facing Human Wrongs: Leading in the Metacrisis, is suitable for your needs now.
Facing Human Wrongs: Depth Education Design training
Those who complete the Facing Human Wrongs: Leading in the Metacrisis course are eligible to register for Depth Education Design, a professional development opportunity for educators and artists. This course will be offered in early 2027.
Fee Structure
This course includes a sliding fee scale. When registering, please select the fee type that applies to you.
- Base fee: The base course fee is $650 CAD (with 50% of net proceeds redistributed to Indigenous-led projects in the Amazon and northeast of Brazil)
- Pay-it-forward fee: Please consider paying $975 CAD to contribute towards the participation of more people if you:
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- have the ability to comfortably meet all your basic needs and have a relatively high degree of earning power due to level of education, social class or other forms of privilege
- belong to a sponsoring organization, are employed full-time or work part-time by choice
- own the home you live in, have investments, retirement accounts, inherited money, or have access to family money and resources in times of needs
- travel recreationally
- Reduced fee: You can also choose the reduced fee ($325 CAD) if you:
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- have difficulty covering basic expenses for you and/or your family
- have medical expenses not covered by insurance
- are an elder with limited financial support
Registration details
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