Image: Compass Rose
Writing Samples
What is possible would never have been achieved if, in this world,
people had not repeatedly reached for the impossible.
- Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, 1921.
I am an ethicist and geographer, and have been for awhile now. Both are interdisciplinary traditions of scholarship, and thus draw on a wide range of theories, methods and topics. Both predate the settled divisions of the academy into disciplines and professions, and thereby intrigue yet confound people.
So in a world of narrowing disciplinary specialization, I often find myself explaining what ethics and geography mean, what in the world they have to do with one another, and how they converge in my work. Here it is in a nutshell.
I am fundamentally interested in the ethical contours of environmental discourse, environmental policy and sustainability. I use my training in both ethics and geography to explore this terrain. Ethics critically examines and envisions 'how we ought to live' with people, animals and nature. Geography emphasizes humanity's role in shaping the face of the earth, with respect to both natural and cultural landscapes. Together, ethics and geography help me triangulate on the ethical norms that are central to human-animal and nature-society relations. This work thus lays at the intersection of animal studies, environmental studies and sustainability studies.
Within these two great traditions of scholarship, my approach is in interpretive, taking form as practical ethics, critical hermeneutics, qualitative methods, and interpretive policy analysis. This work is unapologetically theoretical with a hard empirical edge. On the theory side, I seek 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, I deploy theoretical insights to promote our individual reflection and collective deliberation on resolving environmental problems. Concrete cases have ranged from local to global scales, and include wolf recovery, urban wildlife management, endangered species protection, and sustainable development.
This is also the approach I share with government agencies and non-profit organizations seeking to broaden their toolbox for environmental policy making and implementation.
Using the links in the sidebar, you can download sample of my research articles and popular writing.
As you read through this work, you will see I am a strong advocate for both situated knowledge and interdisciplinarity. I welcome a diversity of theories, methods, concerns and insights. I believe the polyvocality that arises out of this diversity is not inchoate, but rich and efficient. It generates the insights that enable us to triangulate on progressively deeper and better accounts of our world. This is not a defense of ethical or scientific relativism. Rather, I am advocating an ethic-laden approach to both the natural and human sciences as indispensable to advancing knowledge.