GAEDE INSTITUTE | PROGRAMS The Conversation on the Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts for a Fragile Planet

March 23-25, 2017

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In a time of ecological degradation and climate crisis, how can the tools of liberal education direct our engagement with the natural world?

Join us at Westmont College in Santa Barbara March 23-25, 2017 for the 16th annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts, "Liberal Arts for a Fragile Planet." We'll consider the many ways that liberal education might invite attentiveness to one's environment. We'll also share ideas for developing and sustaining programs, pedagogies, and curricula that more effectively address environmental concerns.

How is the "ecology" of teaching and learning embedded in the natural world? Come join the conversation. 

Who should attend?

Our conversation will include a broad array of participants: faculty who want to deepen their engagement with environmental concerns; college or university administrators looking for structural ways to promote environmental awareness; undergraduate or graduate students whose scholarship or experience point toward environmental advocacy; environmental activists or other practitioners; and anyone with an interest in the value and practice of liberal education.

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Andrew Bocarsly | Princeton University 

Andrew Bocarsly is a professor of chemistry at Princeton University and a founder of Liquid Light, Inc., a startup company that turns carbon dioxide into fuels and other commercially useful chemicals. Pioneering a process he calls "reverse combustion," Bocarsly aims to combat climate change through carbon reuse, in the process building bridges between cutting-edge electrochemical research and industry. Dr. Bocarsly also serves as a consultant and contractor to various fuel cell and alternate energy companies, as well as the electrochemistry editor for Methods in Materials Research. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from M.I.T. 

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Steven Bouma-Prediger | Hope College 

Steven Bouma-Prediger is a professor of religion at Hope College, where he also directs the Environmental Studies Program. His publications include For the Beauty of the Earth, an award-winning book that makes a case for Christian involvement in the modern environmental movement. A specialist in ecological theology and ethics, Dr. Bouma-Prediger regularly contributes to Western Theological Seminary's Creation Care Study Program in Belize and New Zealand; he also serves on the board of the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Chicago. 

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Janet Redman | Oil Change International 

Janet Redman is the US Policy Director of Oil Change International, a nonprofit organization that researches and publicizes the costs of fossil fuel consumption and trends toward clean energy. She is also an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she formerly directed the Climate Policy Program. Ms. Redman has long experience advocating for sustainable energy policies in Washington, DC, work that has brought her into alliance with grassroots organizations in the global South and North in search of creative political solutions. She holds a Master's in international development and social change from Clark University.

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Ling Zhang | Boston College 

Ling Zhang is professor of history at Boston College, focusing on environmental change in pre-modern China. Her most recent book, The River, the Plain, and the State, describes the social and political consequences, as well as the human and ecological costs, of a drastic eleventh-century rerouting of the Yellow River; the American Society for Environmental History awarded it the 2017 George Perkins Marsh prize for best book. Before coming to Boston College, Dr. Zhang served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University and a Ziff Environmental Fellow at Harvard University. She holds a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University.

 

Concurrent Session 1

Bridging Cultural and Political Divides | Hieronymus Lounge

Daniel Escher, "Cultural Aspects of Environmental Work"

John Shriver, "Building Collaborative Relationships Between Conservationists and Farmers in a Divided Landscape"

Institutionalizing Integrative Thinking | Alumni Gallery

Paul Turpin, "Educating Interdependence: The Liberal Arts' Contribution to Environmentalism as a Civic Concern"

Rachel Montgomery, "Mission-Driven: Examining the Institutional Identities of Liberal Arts Colleges"

Ryan McIlhenny, "Creating a Storm: The Liberal Arts, Climate Change, and Social Activism" 

Concurrent Session 2
Histories of Environmentalism and the Fine Arts | Hieronymus Lounge

Lisa DeBoer, "God Made the Earth but the Dutch Made Holland:Pleasant Places, Sublime Scenes, and Teaching the Liberal Arts for a Fragile Planet" (Visuals--PowerPoint

Don Hedges, "Music of the (Hydro)Sphere: American Environmentalism and Art Music from Hovhaness's And God Created Great Whales (1970) to Adams's Become Ocean (2014)" 

Phyllis Brown, "Paradigm Shifts, Threshold Concepts, and Sustainability at Santa Clara University"

Adele Negro, "In Defense of the Liberal Arts Generalist: Reflections on an Ecology of Language"

Elmar Hashimov, Aurora Matzke, and Christi Watson, "The Global is Social: Ecocriticism as a Way of Marshaling Resources for New Programs in Liberal Arts"

Concurrent Session 3 

Sarah Russ, "A Multidisciplinary Fieldtrip to Discover the American West"

Kelsey Lahr, "'Facts as We See Them': Personal Narratives as Evidence in Scientific Arguments About Climate Change"

Mediating Environmental Values Through Art | Adams 221 

Theresa Covich, "Toward a Georgic Ethic"

Kristin George Bagdanov, "A New Formalism for the Anthropocene: Portable Forms for Interdisciplinary Conversations" 

Richard Slimbach, "Global Artists for a Fragile Planet"

March 23

CO2: Agent of Climate Change, or Agent of Opportunity?
Andrew Bocarsly, Princeton University

March 24

Deep Ecology, Deep History: Studying and Teaching History in Our Present Environmental Time
Ling Zhang, Boston College

Education for Homelessness or Homemaking? On the Liberal Arts and Our Common Calling to Care for the Earth
Steven Bouma-Prediger, Hope College

March 25

Moving Forward Together: A Just Transition to a Sustainable Economy
Janet Redman, Oil Change International