The Environmental Humanities research group is an initiative sponsored by an association of faculty at Brigham Young University devoted to interdisciplinary research and teaching on the environment and supported, in part, by The Nature Conservancy. The goals of the research group are:
1) To achieve the BYU AIMS to motivate BYU graduates “to improve the moral, social, and ecological environment in which they and their families live” and;
2) To invigorate interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy at BYU by increasing awareness of and responsibility for contemporary environmental problems among students and faculty; exploring and articulating the grounds for environmental ethics and solutions; and promoting and exploring the academic and ethical bases for effective conservation and stewardship.
Over the course of the past two years, the research group (formerly the Environmental Ethics Initiative) organized a series of events that had the thematic focus of Environmental Ethics, which are understood to broadly include the values and practices in religion, philosophy, law, and the humanities and their intersections with the natural sciences generally and conservation biology more specifically. Those events included visits from such scholars as Peter Kareiva, Lawrence Buell, Naomi Oreskes, William Jordan, and M. Sanjayan, as well as a recent symposium, “Conservation, Restoration, and Sustainability: A Call to Stewardship,” that featured keynote addresses by J. Baird Callicott, Margaret Palmer, and Jon Foley.
The Environmental Humanities research group intends to continue to foster conversations about the applications of religious and humanistic values to such issues as biodiversity, sustainable development, poverty and human health, environmental politics, and business ethics and risk management.
Winter 2016 Calendar:
*All meetings will take place in 4010 JFSB.
Jan 22 at 4:00– Brigham Daniels and Darren Hawkins
March 4 at 4:00–Fred Pinnegar
March 11 at 4:00–John Bennion
April 1 at 4:00–George Handley
For further information, contact George Handley (CAL)