Image: Compass Rose
Research Statement
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 interdisciplinary scholar trained in both ethics and geography. My research thus draws on insights from a number of theoretical and methodological sources -- practical ethics, hermeneutics, qualitative research, interpretive public policy. I deploy these insights in both theoretical and empirical research, particularly policy issues with moral and political relevance to nature-society and human-animal relations.
Geography is the elder tradition of what is now called environmental studies and global studies. It is also a major voice in the emergent discipline of human-animal studies. Ethics is an inquiry into how we ought to live with others, human or non-human, near or far, now or in the future. Ethics helps reveal the moral problems we face, and provides guidance about what to do about these problems.
Together, ethics and geography help describe how humans inhabit the surface of the earth, explain our 'geographic agency' in reshaping the life-systems of the planet, evaluate the consequences this has for the well-being of people, animals and nature, and envision a way-of-life that respects the well-being of human and non-human others.
My signature research areas are the ethics of wolf recovery, the intersections of science, ethics and policy, the ethical dimensions of sustainability, and the theory/method of practical ethics. This research serves as a point of departure for collaborative work with others on a range of issues such as the ethics of urban wildlife control, coyote management, and protecting endangered species like the Northern Spotted Owl.
Using the links in the sidebar, you can download my research statement, examples of research articles, and samples of my popular writing.
As you read through this work, you'll 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 aproach to both the natural and human sciences as the best way to advance knowledge.