From Paul Bergelin ([log in to unmask])
Summer Institute Examines the Meaning of Sustainability
Few concepts today are more discussed, debated, and misconstrued as sustainability. Schools and universities teach it, cities and states embrace it, and businesses claim to operate by it. But what does sustainability really mean? Something should be sustained, but what? And who gets to say?
“At its root,” says Arizona State University (ASU) philosopher Joan McGregor, “sustainability concerns our relationship to the environment, both built and natural, as well as our obligation to leave a resilient environment to future generations. Sustainability, then, is a philosophical, ethical, and cultural pursuit, but it is often taught and practiced as a technical challenge only.”
Since 2007, the Institute for Humanities Research (IHR) at ASU has supported scholarship that adds the perspectives of history, literature, philosophy, comparative religion, and other humanities disciplines to the sustainability dialog. Next year, IHR will offer an exciting opportunity for 25 college and university professors from around the country to come together for a month to research the connections between the humanities and sustainability.
Titled “Rethinking the Land Ethic: Sustainability and the Humanities,” the summer institute is funded by a $199,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The institute takes place June 20 – July 15, 2011, on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. Participants receive a $3,300 stipend to cover travel, lodging, and other project expenses.
Joining McGregor as a co-director of the institute is Dan Shilling, from ASU’s English Department. McGregor and Shilling led a 2009 NEH summer institute on ecologist Aldo Leopold, whose notion of a “Land Ethic” was the starting point for the sustainability institute.
“Although Leopold never uses the word ‘sustainability’ in his hundreds of essays,” says Shilling, “it’s clear his Land Ethic, where scientific and cultural dimensions work together in order to leave a healthy environment, is a fitting place to look for the soul of sustainability.”
The institute’s faculty features some of the most respected scholars who teach and research sustainability and the humanities, among them: philosopher Bryan Norton, Georgia Institute of Technology; religious studies professor Bron Taylor, University of Florida; poet and author Simon Ortiz, ASU English; and Julianne Lutz Warren, who teaches the history of conservation at NYU. Many other guest speakers and field trips will add to the experience.
For information, please visit our website at: http://leopold.asu.edu/sustainability/.