‘Varieties of Natural Beauty,’ Philosophy Department, University of South Florida, 16 February 2024.

‘Land Art as Commoning and Resistance: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Community,’ for the 2023-2024 Campion-Weber Lectures on Values, University of San Diego, 13 March 2024.

‘Planetary Aesthetics’ for ‘Defining and Using the Aesthetic in the Environmental Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Experiment’ workshop, LMU Munich/Rachel Carson Center, April 2024 (via Zoom). Keynote.

Nordic Society of Aesthetics Annual Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2024. I’ll be delivering one of the keynotes, a lecture entitled, “Earth to Sky: Geosphere, Atmosphere, and Planetary Aesthetics.”

Mantovarchitettura (May 2023): This fantastic annual event in Mantua is supported by the UNESCO Chair in Architectural Preservation and Planning in World Heritage Cities, Politecnico di Milano (Mantua campus). I’ll be presenting an invited talk on 15th May, 2023, “Aesthetic Virtues, Nature, and Co-Flourishing.”

University of Bologna (May 2023): As a visiting professor at the University in May this year, I’ll be presenting a keynote, “Planetary Aesthetics: Environmental Aesthetics for the Earth’s Future,” to the “The Practices of Common Sense between Social Ethics and Aesthetics: environment, ecology, conflict and democracy” conference on 18th May. The event is organized by three research centers in the Philosophy and Communication Studies Department: Almæsthetics, RaMo-Radici e Motivi del Pragmatismo, and AlmaClimate).

University of Palermo (June 2023): My keynote lecture, “Environmental Aesthetics, Biodiversity, and Co-Flourishing,” will be presented to the conference “Cultivating the Idea of Biodiversity: The arts and their languages for an ecologist engagement in the public space” as part of the session, “Biodiversity as a transdisciplinary paradigm between science and art, ethics and aesthetics.” The conference, 6-7th June, is organized by the Department of Humanities.

Palermo Botanical Garden (Wikipedia)

The Consortium of Environmental Philosophers (CEP) has created an Environmental Humanities Toolkit “to bring the knowledge and methodologies of the humanities to bear on key environmental crises.The Toolkit assembles some of the existing work in humanities into a digestible format, for use by policymakers who recognise the need to think differently but are at a loss as to what this might look like or where to begin. Key insights are synthesized for application across a range of institutions and sectors of society, demonstrating the potential contributions of the Environmental Humanities to policy.”

Download the toolkit and explore CEP’s efforts to bring the knowledge and methodologies of the humanities to address global environmental problems.

Check out this article by the journalist, Richard Fisher, “The upsides of feeling small,” published in December 2022. It’s a wonderful overview article about the sublime and kicks off a new series, “Immensities,” by BBC Future. Fisher quotes from my book, The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics and Nature (2013), reflects on a variety of sublime experiences, and references work in psychology, too.

The Snowdon Massif from Glyder Fawr. 2004. Wikipedia.

CONFERENCE RECORDINGS HERE. Final program, registration form, speaker bios and abstracts, and local information can be found here. Please join us! CALL FOR PAPERS

The Glasscock Center for Humanities Research invites abstracts for its “Planetary Health and the Humanities” conference to be held at Texas A&M University on March 31 and April 1, 2022. Keynote speaker: Nancy Tuana (Penn State University). Invited speakers: ​​Jamie Draper (University of Oxford), Rosemary Jolly (Penn State University), Michelle Meyer (Texas A&M University), Nicole Redvers (University of North Dakota), Omar Rivera (Texas A&M University), Krithika Srinivasan (University of Edinburgh). The Glasscock Center at Texas A&M University is dedicated to supporting and fostering cross-disciplinary research in the humanities, and its current initiatives focus, respectively, on global health, environment, and the public humanities. Growing concerns over environmental degradation and the effects of climate change and habitat loss have led to emerging cross-disciplinary research into the direct impacts of environmental decline on health in relation to human and more-than-human ecologies. The conference will begin with a keynote address on the evening of March 31st and feature both invited scholars as well as six accepted fifteen-minute papers to present in three panels throughout the day on April 1st. The Glasscock Center especially encourages submissions in the following areas:Indigenous and decolonial approaches to planetary healthPandemics, ecology & wellbeingClimate change and planetary healthWe invite individuals from every discipline and profession interested in advancing scholarship, teaching, and a general understanding of the connections between ecological health and human health. More specific topics which we welcome include, but are not limited to: environmental justice, global justice, environmental inequality, impacts of global climate change on health, environmental disasters, displacement and climate refugees, food insecurity, access to nutrition, ecological dimensions of physical and mental health, ecological degradation and pandemics, nature-based solutions, zoonotic disease transfer, biopolitics, economic dimensions of planetary health, and black, indigenous, decolonial, and feminist approaches to planetary health. This conference is free and open to the public. It will be held in person on Texas A&M’s campus, but to help accommodate our international participants and participants encountering difficulty traveling, we are equipped for hybrid presentations should circumstances necessitate. Graduate students whose papers are accepted will receive a bursary to help defray accommodation and travel expenses. Information about the conference appears on the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research website here. Submissions should take the form of an abstract of no longer than 200 words, five keywords, and the applicant’s name, affiliation, and email address. Abstracts must be submitted through this Google Form. ALL SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY FEBRUARY 4, 2022.

This series of events explores research in the humanities and other disciplines concerning the relationship between people and plants. The series is hosted by the Glasscock Center’s Humanities: Land Sea Space initiative. During 2021-2022, LAND features as our main theme and, through it, we explore the deep, foundational role that plants play in the ecosystems that support life on Earth. These events highlight the variety of human-plant relationships—from individual relationships like those experienced in a garden, to broad, societal relationships and dependencies on land like agriculture and forestry—and how these relationships are expressed through different worldviews and contexts.

Series flyer

Humanities & Science Exchanges: Human-Plant Relationships

Thursday, October 21, 2021
Leach Teaching Gardens Pavilion, Texas A&M campus
4:15-6:15pm

Please RSVP at tx.ag/PlantsRSVP

Speakers: Dr. Allison Hopkins (Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M) & Dr. Kenneth R. Hurst (Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M)

4:15 PM: Opening and Introductions

4:30 – 5:15 PM: Discussion between speakers

5:15 – 5:40 PM: Q&A

5:40 PM: Closing Remarks

5:45 – 6:15 PM: Attendees tour the gardens

Exploring People-Plant Relationships in the Arts and Philosophy

Friday, November 5, 2021
Zoom Webinar | Register at tx.ag/PlantsRegistration
10:00am – 1:15pm Central Time

This webinar, hosted by the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University, features talks and discussion by artists and philosophers exploring people-plant relationships in gardens and the rural landscape.

10:00: Dr. Emily Brady (Texas A&M), Opening remarks

10:10-10:50: Dr. Isis Brook (Crossfields Institute) | “Engaging with the Plant Realm”

10:50-11:10: Q&A

11:10-11:20: Break

11:20-12:00: Dr. Reiko Goto and Dr. Tim Collins (Collins & Goto Studio) | “Ancient boglands and the Irish peat industry: Does Culture Mitigate Ecocide?”

12.00-12.20: Q&A

12:20-12:30: Break

12:30-12:50: Dr. Marcello Di Paola (University of Palermo), Respondent

12:50-1:15: Closing discussion

Coastal Communities and Justice

As part of the Glasscock Center’s Humanities: Land Sea Space initiative, this series of virtual events explores issues concerning environmental justice, energy, community, and forms of resilience in coastal areas in Texas and beyond. We are collaborating with the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center to present this series.

 Seadrift (2019) film screening

Directed by Tim Tsai and winner of numerous awards, including the 2019 Texas Visionary Award and Best Documentary feature at the Indie and Foreign Film Festival 2019.

“In 1979, a Vietnamese refugee shoots and kills a white crab fisherman at the public town docks in Seadrift, TX. What began as a dispute over fishing territory erupts into violence and ignites a maelstrom of boat burnings, KKK intimidation, and other hostilities against Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast. Set during the early days of Vietnamese arrival in the U.S. Seadrift is a feature documentary that examines the circumstances that led up to the shooting and its dramatic aftermath, and reveals the unexpected consequences that continue to reverberate today.”

Please RSVP for a free link to view the film, which will be available one week before the Q&A event on October 22. Additional viewing options here: https://www.seadriftfilm.com/watch

Thursday, October 22, 5:00-6.30pm  Seadrift Q&A and Discussion

Chair: Emily Brady (Glasscock Center/Philosophy, Texas A&M

Tim Tsai, Seadrift Director

Thao Ha, Seadrift Associate Director and Professor of Sociology, MiraCosta College

Webinar. Please RSVP for link.

Friday, October 30, 12:00-1:30pm  Coastal Communities and Justice Roundtable

Chair: Michelle Meyer (Director, Hazard and Reduction Recovery Center, Texas A&M)

Deidra D. Davis (Landscape and Urban Planning, Texas A&M)

Clare Palmer (Philosophy, Texas A&M)

Carlee Purdum (Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, Texas A&M)

Joy Semien (Urban and Regional Science/HRRC, Texas A&M)

Webinar. Please RSVP for link.

Friday, November 6, 1:00-2:30pm

“Coastal communities, major environmental change, and inherent resilience: insights from the Fukushima coast”

Leslie Mabon (Marine Social Science, Scottish Association for Marine Science-University of the Highlands and Islands)

Chair: Emily Brady

Zoom link: https://tamu.zoom.us/j/96950354619

November 7-8th, Texas A&M University

PROGRAM

Keynote speakers: Helen Rozwadowski and Laura Winkiel

In tandem with urgent calls for the protection of oceans, seas, and coastal communities from the effects of global warming and pollution, humanities and humanistic social science disciplines have been experiencing an ‘oceanic’ or ‘blue’ turn. Recent work in history, literary studies, philosophy, cultural geography, anthropology, communication, and the arts has produced a vibrant body of research exploring relationships between marine spaces, species, and people. New conversations have emerged between the humanities and the natural sciences, sparking imagination and critical engagement with respect to issues and topics marginalized by land-based scholarship. This symposium seeks to foster cross-disciplinary conversations among faculty, invited speakers, and students at Texas A&M, as well as the broader community, with respect to the histories, poetics, and conservation futures of the planet’s oceans.

Details of the event can be found here.

Join us at the Glasscock Center on December 6th & 7th for this exploratory forum and contribute your ideas to our newest initiative!

In a world of climate change and the Anthropocene, pressing global issues concerning environmental and intergenerational justice, nature-society relationships, more-than-human ethics, and coastal and island communities – among many others – call upon the critical methods of the humanities, as well as perspectives from the social and natural sciences. As a new Glasscock Center initiative, Humanities: Land Sea Space will catalyze innovative research across a variety of disciplines and contexts at Texas A&M and beyond, and contribute to current debates in the environmental humanities, blue/marine humanities, geohumanities, energy humanities, and public humanities. The aim of this forum is to explore research and ideas for the new initiative, Humanities: Land Sea Space.

For more information, visit: glasscock.tamu.edu/initiatives/hlss/

Thurs. Dec. 6
Location: 311 Glasscock Building

• 4:00-4:15
  • Welcome | Dr. Emily Brady (Glasscock Center/Philosophy)
• 4:15-5:30
  • “Epigenetic Life: At the Intersection of Postgenomics, Anthropocene & Deregulation”
    Keynote | Dr. Becky Mansfield (Geography, Ohio State University)
• 5:30-6:00
  • Reception

Fri. Dec. 7
Location: 311 Glasscock Building

• 9:30-10:00
  • “Sustainable Communities, Resilience, and Justice”
    ​Dr. Phil Berke (Institute for Sustainable Communities)

• 10:00-10:30
  • “A Multi-Method Investigation of American Evangelical Christians’ Environmental Attitudes”
    Dr. Robin Globus Veldman (Religious Studies)
    ​
• 10:30-10:45
  • Coffee Break
• 10:45-11:15
  • “Occupying Nature: The Politics of the Environment in American Occupied Germany”
    Douglas Bell (History)
• 11:15-11:45
  • “Wild animals, ethics, and climate change”
    ​Dr. Clare Palmer (Philosophy)
• 11:45-12:15
  • “’Natural’ Identities in the Early Caribbean: Birthplace, Borders, and Loyalty on Land and at Sea”
    ​Dr. April Hatfield (History)
• 12:15-1:30
  • Lunch
    ​
• 1:30-3:30
  • Roundtable Discussion and Q&A
    • Dr. Christian Brannstrom (Geography)
    • Dr. Jessica Howell (Glasscock Center/English)
    • Dr. Becky Mansfield
    • Dr. Clare Palmer
    • Dr. Pam Plotkin (Sea Grant/Oceanography)

Free and open to the public.