Vanessa Andreotti
Speaker
Vanessa Andreotti is a Brazilian educator, author, philosopher, and activist, as well as Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. For decades, she has been at the forefront of rethinking education, questioning the dominant assumptions that shape our understanding of progress, knowledge, and change.
Deeply influenced by the wisdom of Indigenous traditions, Vanessa urges us to see clearly the fractures within modernity and to wake up to the deep truths of interconnection and entanglement. She invites us to meet this time of endings with wisdom, discernment, and compassion. Of Guarani and German ancestry, Vanessa moves fluidly between worlds—trained in the Western academic tradition while also learning from Brazilian Indigenous communities. This unique perspective allows her to integrate multiple ways of knowing, offering rare clarity in a time of uncertainty and planetary transition. At this year’s festival, she will share her most recent workexploring our relationship with artificial intelligence and what it means for the future of humanity and our planet.