Image: Bill speaking on ethics and environmental policy.
Curriculum Vita
Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.
- Bertrand Russell. Quoted in Antony Flew's Thinking About Thinking (1989)
William S. Lynn, Ph.D. is a visiting professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, where he teaches courses in environmental studies, ethics, qualitative research and public policy.
Bill received his doctorate in Geography from the University of Minnesota. While there he studied ethics, geography, interpretive social science, and qualitative methods. A founding editor of the international journal Ethics, Place and Environment, he is a member of the Ethics Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union/IUCN, and an International Associate of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies (www.nzchas.canterbury.ac.nz).
Bill's research focuses on the ethical contours of environmental discourse, environmental policy and sustainability. Using practical ethics, critical hermeneutics and qualitative methods, he triangulates on the ethical norms that are central to human-animal and nature-society relations. This work is unapologetically theoretical with a hard empirical edge. On the theory side, his approach to ethics and interpretation seeks to clarify ambiguities and disclose new possibilities for how we understand our moral responsibilities to other people, other animals, and the world we share. On the empirical side, he deploys theoretical insights to promote our individual reflection and collective deliberation on resolving environmental problems. Concrete cases range from the local to global scale, and included wolf recovery, urban wildlife management, endangered species protection, and sustainable development. His work thus lays at the intersection of animal studies, environmental studies, and sustainability studies.
Before arriving at Williams College, Bill was a professor of Environmental Studies at Green Mountain College, a research scholar at non-profit think-tanks, and a professor at Tufts University. While at Tufts, he was the Assistant Director at the Center for Animals and Public Policy, and Program Director for its Master of Science in Animals and Public Policy (MAPP). Bill is also the founder and Senior Ethics Advisor of Practical Ethics (www.practicalethics.net), a website, blog and gallery dedicated to the well-being of people, animals and nature. His work has been featured in numerous books, journals, magazines, and radio talk shows.