Bron Taylor ~ Curriculum
Vitae ~ Abridged
OVERVIEW
Trained in ethics, religious studies, and social scientific approaches to
understanding human culture, through his scholarly work Bron Taylor’s engages
the quest for environmentally sustainable societies. Appearing in articles, books, and a multi-volume
encyclopedia, he examines a wide range of phenomena, especially grassroots
environmental movements and organizations, and international institutions, with
special attention to their moral and religious dimensions. An academic
entrepreneur and program builder, he led the initiative to create an academic
major in Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, later
initiated and was elected the first president of the International Society for
the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, while also founding its affiliated
journal and becoming its editor.
Recruited to fill the Samuel S. Hill Ethics Chair at the University of
Florida and appointed in 2002, he played a leading role in constructing the
world’s first Ph.D. program with an emphasis in Religion and Nature. Most
recently, he has been involved in an international think tank exploring ways to
more effectively promote an environmentally sustainable future. His most recent book is Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and
the Planetary Future.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Religion (Social Ethics), School of Religion, University of Southern California (12/22/88).
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Professor of Religion and Nature, The University of
Florida.
Affiliated Scholar, Center for Environment and Development, Oslo University, involved with
the research project, “Sustainability for the 21st Century:
Overcoming Limitations to Creative Adaptation in Addressing the Climate
Challenge.”
Professor of Religion and Director of Environmental
Studies, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
PUBLICATIONS–BOOKS
Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (University of California Press), 2009.
Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (Editor-in-Chief), 2 volumes, 1000 entries, 520
contributors, over 1.5 million words. (Continuum International, London &
New York, 2005.) See www.ReligionandNature.com/ern.
Ecological
Resistance Movements: the Global Emergence of Radical and Popular
Environmentalism. (State University of New
York Press, International Environmental Policy and Theory Series, 1995). Commissioned and edited volume of
original research, writing three chapters and co-authoring another.
Affirmative Action
at Work: Law, Politics, and Ethics
(University of Pittsburgh Press, Institutional and Public Policy Series, 1991).
PUBLICATIONS–JOURNAL
Founding editor, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, 4 issues/year, from 2007, affiliated with the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. See www.religionandnature.com
PUBLICATIONS–IN JOURNALS
“Back to Religion
and Nature” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 77 (2009), doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfp010,
1-8.
“The
Tributaries of Radical Environmentalism,” Journal for the Study of
Radicalism, 2(1):27-61,
2008.
“Focus
Introduction: Aquatic
Nature Religion,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 75(4):
863-874, 2007. First published online, 16 October 2007, doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm065.
“Surfing
into Spirituality and a New, Aquatic Nature Religion,” Journal of
the American Academy of Religion, 75(4): 923-951, 2007.
First published online 19 October 2007, doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfm067.
“Exploring
Religion, Nature, and Culture: Introducing the Journal for the Study of
Religion, Nature and Culture,” Journal for the Study of Religion,
Nature, and Culture 1(1): 5-14, 2007.
“A Green Future for Religion?” Futures Journal (Special Issue, ed. William Bainbridge) 36(9):991-1008, November 2004.
“Threat
Assessments and Radical Environmentalism,” Terrorism and Political Violence 15(4):173-182, Winter 2003.
“Earth
and Nature-Based Spirituality: From Earth First! and Bioregionalism to
Scientific Paganism and the New Age,” Religion
31(3):225-245, July 2001.
“Earth
and Nature-Based Spirituality: From Deep Ecology to Radical Environmentalism,”
Religion 31(2):175-193, April 2001.
“Bioregionalism:
An Ethics of Loyalty to Place,” Landscape Journal
19(1&2):50-72, 2000.
“Green
Apocalypticism: Understanding Disaster in the Radical Environmental Worldview,”
Society
and Natural Resources 12(4):377-386, June
1999.
“Nature & Supernature – Harmony and Mastery:
Irony and Evolution in Contemporary Nature Religion,” The Pomegranate #8 (May 1999), 21-27.
“Religion,
Violence, and Radical Environmentalism: from Earth First! to the Unabomber to
the Earth Liberation Front,” Terrorism
and Political Violence 10(4):1-42, Winter 1998.
Guest editor of “Special theme
issue on J. Baird Callicott’s Earth Insights,” Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 1(2):93-182, August
1997.
“On
Sacred or Secular Ground? – Callicott and Environmental Ethics,” Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion
1(2):99-111, August 1997
“Editorial Introduction” (with
Clare Palmer), Worldviews: Environment,
Culture, Religion 1(2):93-97, August 1997.
“Earth
First! Fights Back: Contextual Reflections on Resistance and Democracy,” Terra Nova: Nature & Culture
2(2):29-43, Spring 1997.
“Earthen
Spirituality or Cultural Genocide?: Radical Environmentalism’s Appropriation of
Native American Spirituality,” Religion
27(2):183-215, April 1997.
“Ecological
Resistance Movements; Not Always Deep but if Deep, Religious: Reply to
Devall,” The Trumpeter 13(2):98-103,
Spring 1996.
“Radical Environmentalism:
Eco-Terrorism?,” in Viewpoints on War,
Peace, and Global Cooperation (1996-1997 Annual Edition), 76-77.
“Battleground for Competing
Values: Affirmative Action at work,” in Viewpoints
1993: The Journal of the Wisconsin Institute for the Study of War, Peace, and
Global Cooperation. 64-72.
“Evoking
the Ecological Self: Art as Resistance to the War on Nature,” in Peace Review: the International Quarterly of
World Peace 5(2):225-230, June 1993.
“The
Religion and Politics of Earth First!,” The
Ecologist 21(6):258-266, November/December, 1991. (This is an early,
shorter version of “Earth First!’s Religious Radicalism”.)
“Grassroots Resistance: the
Emergence of Popular-Environmental Movements in Less-Affluent Countries,” Wild Earth 2(4):43-50, Winter 1992/1993
(abridged version).
“On Quotas and Civil Rights,” Christian Century 108(24):767-768,
August 21-28, 1991.
“Resurrecting the Civil Rights
Bill,” Christian Social Action
4(3):28-31, March 1991.
“Authority in Ethics: a Portrait
of the Methodology of Sojourners Fellowship,” Encounter 46(2):139-156, 1985.
“The Calling of Jonah,” Radix 12(2) 20-22, Sept.-Oct., 1980.
PUBLICATIONS–INVITED BOOK CHAPTERS
“From the Ground Up: Dark Green Religion and the Environmental Future,” Ecology and the Environment: Perspectives from the Humanities. Ed. Donald Swearer (Cambridge: Center for the Study of World Religions/Harvard University Press), 2008, 89-107.
“Sea Spirituality,
Surfing, & Aquatic Nature Religion,” In Deep Blue: Critical Reflections on Nature,
Religion and Water. Eds. Sylvie Shaw and Andrew Francis (London:
Equinox, 2008), 213-33.
“Religion and Environmentalism in North America and Beyond,” Oxford Handbook on Religion and Ecology. Ed. Roger S. Gottlieb (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2006), 588-612.
“New and Alternative Nature Religions in America” (with J. Witt) in New and Alternative Religions in the United States. Eds. M. Ashcraft & E. Gallagher (New York: Praeger, 2006), 253-272.
“Nature Religion and Environmentalism in North America” (with G. Van Horn) in Faith in America, v 3. Ed. Charles Lippy (New York: Praeger, 2006), 165-190.
“Revisiting
Ecoterrorism” in Religionen im Konflikt. Eds. Vasilios N. Makrides and Jörg Rüpke (Münster: Aschendorff, 2004), 237-248.
“Battling Religions in Parks
and Forest Reserves: Facing Religion in Conflicts Over Protected Places” (with Joel Geffen), in Full Value of Parks and Protected Areas: From
Economics to the Intangible, eds. D.
Harmon & Allen Putney (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), 281-94.
“Diggers,
Wolves, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Bricolage, Religion, and Violence
from Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front to the Anti-Globalization
Resistance,” in The Cultic Milieu Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of
Globalization. Eds. Jeffrey Kaplan and Heléne Lööw (Altimura, 2002),
26-74. Swedish translation
forthcoming in Sekter, sektmotståndare och sekteristiska miljöer, en
förnyad granskning.
“Deep
Ecology and its Social Philosophy: A Critique,” in Beneath the
Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology.
Eds. E. Katz. A. Light, D. Rothenberg (Boston: MIT Press, 2000), 269-299.
“Earth First!: from Primal
Spirituality to Ecological Resistance,” in This
Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature, Environment. Ed. Roger Gottlieb (Routledge,
1996), 545-557.
“Resacralizing
Earth: Environmental Paganism and the Restoration of Turtle Island,” in American Sacred Space. Eds. D. Chidester
and E.T. Linenthal (Indiana University Press, Religion in America Series,
1995), 97-151.
“Earth
First!’s Religious Radicalism,” in Ecological
Prospects: Scientific, Religious, and Aesthetic Perspectives. Ed. C.
Chapple (State University of New York Press, 1994), 185-209.
“Grassroots Resistance: the
Emergence of Popular-Environmental Movements in Less Affluent Countries”
(editor and lead author, with contributions from H. Hadsell, L. Lorentzen, and
R. Scarce), in Environmental Politics in
the International Arena. Ed. S. Kamieniecki. (State University of New York
Press, 1993), 69-89.
PUBLICATIONS–REFERENCE
WORKS
Entry
titled: “Ecotage and Ecoterrorism” (286-91) (with Todd Levasseur) in the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy (Eds. J. Baird Callicott and
Robert Frodeman, Detroit, Macmillan Reference, 2008).
Entry
titled: “Environmentalism” (v. 2, pp. 593-98) in The Brill Dictionary of Religion, 4 vols. Editor-in-Chief, Kocku
von Stuckrad (Leiden & Boston: Brill 2006). Revised and updated from the original, German “Metzler Lexikon
Religion.”
Entries
titled: “Ecology
and Nature Religions,” (pp. 2661-68) in the “Ecology and Religion” section; “Earth
First!” (pp. 2561-66); in The Encyclopedia of Religion
(Editor-in-Chief, Lindsay Jones, Second Edition, MacMillan, 2005).
Entries
titled: “Introduction
and Reader’s Guide” (encyclopedia introduction); “Bioregionalism
and the North American Bioregional Congress,” “Celestine
Prophesy,” “Conservation
Biology,” “Criticizing
‘World Religions and Ecology,” “Death
and Afterlife in Jeffers and Abbey,” “Deep
Ecology” (with Michael Zimmerman), “Deep
Ecology – Institute for,” “Disney
Worlds at War,” “Diggers Song,” “Earth
First! and the Earth Liberation Front,” “Jane
Goodall” (with Paula Posas), “Environmental Ethics,” “Hundredth
Monkey” (and “Monkeys in the Field”); “Radical
Environmentalism” (and “Rodney Coronado and the Animal Liberation Front”);
“Restoring Eden” (with Peter Illyn); “Religious
Studies and Environmental Concern,” “John Seed,”
“Sierra
Club” (with Gavin Van Horn), “Surfing”
(with Glen Henning), “Snyder,
Gary – and the Invention of Bioregional Spirituality and Politics,” “United Nations’ ‘Earth Summits’,”
“Paul
Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society” (with Steve Best); in The Encyclopedia of Religion and
Nature. (Editor-in-Chief, Bron Taylor, London & NY: Continuum
2005). (Approximately 80,000 words)
Entries
titled: Entries titled: “Deep Ecology” (180-82) “John Muir” (424-25), “Nature
Religion” (454-56), “Neo-Paganism” (458-60), “New Age Religion” (460-61), “Sojourners
Fellowship” (633-34); in The Encyclopedia
of American Religious History (Facts on File, revised edition, 2001).
Entries entitled:
“Environmentalism” (pp. 140-44) and “Earth
First!” (pp. 130-133); in Encyclopedia
of Millennial Movements. Ed. Richard Landes (New York & London:
Routledge, 2000).
Entries entitled:
“Nature Religion” (484-85) and “Deep Ecology” (182-83); in Contemporary American Religion. Ed. Wade Clark Roof (New York:
Macmillan, 2000).
Entries entitled:
“Affirmative Action” (Part I, pp. 15-17) and “Sustainability” (Part II, p.
244); in Dictionary of American History (supplement).
Eds. Robert Ferrell and Joan Hoff (Lakeville, Connecticut: Scribner’s American
Reference Publishing Company, 1996).
Entries titled:
“Deep Ecology,” (180-81), “John Muir,” “Nature Religion,” “Neo-Paganism,” “New
Age Religion,” “Sojourners Fellowship”; in The
Encyclopedia of American Religious History. (Facts on File, 1996).
Entries titled: “Radical
Environmentalism” (539-40), “Environmental Movements: Less Affluent Nations” (254-55),
“Eco-spirituality,” (204-05). “Wildlands Project” (204-05); in Conservation and Environmentalism: An
Encyclopedia. Ed. Robert Paehlke (NY: Garland, 1995).
AWARDS
2006 The American Library Association’s
Outstanding Reference Source award, for the Encyclopedia
of Religion and Nature
2005 Choice’s
Outstanding Academic Title of
2005 for the Encyclopedia of Religion and
Nature
2002 Rosebush
Professorship, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, highest faculty award for research,
teaching, and service
2001 First
Prize, Curriculum Innovation Award, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, for
Biodiversity and Bioregionalism course, $3,500 award
1997-2001 Oshkosh
Foundation Endowed Professorship, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
1994-1995 Research
Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin
Madison
1992 University
of Wisconsin System, Regents Teaching Merit Award
1982-1983 U.S.C.
Firestone Fellowship
1982 U.S.C.
President’s Circle Merit Award
1977 Graduated
“with distinction” from California State University, Chico
LECTURES & PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS
(Selected)
International
“Terrapolitanism or Totalitarianism: Considering the Progress and Peril of Dark Green Religion,” Presidential Address, Third Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 2009.
“Trust in Nature /
Faith in Civil Society,” Arne Naess Symposium, Centre for Environment and
Development, Oslo, August 2008.
Invited
workshop participant and presenter, exploring Chile’s biosphere reserve
proposal, “Ecologia y Sociedad: Enfrentando el
Cambio Global con una Red de Sitios de Estudios Socio-Ecológicos de Largo Plazo
al Sur de América” Universidad de Magallanes,
Punta Arenas & Unidad Académica Puerto Williams, Provincia Antártica
Chilena, June 2008.
“The Role of Religion in Environmental Governance,” plenary speaker in two “impulse sessions” on “ethics” and “capacity building, at the Freiburg Forum on Environmental Governance, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, April 2008.
“Paganism as a New World Religion,” Presidential Address, Second Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, Morelia, Mexico, January 2008. Also presented “Tree Animism” during a Panel on “Sacred Trees and their Humans” and served as the respondent for the session, “Modern Spiritualities: Enchanted Science, Darwin, and the Apocalypse.”
Member and participant in the Oslo Revisionist School, an ad hoc think tank assessing the Brundtland Report, which was published in 1987 by the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development as Our Common Future. The outcome is a report presented at the Centre for the Environment and Development Research Conference, held in Oslo on 27 April 2007, as well as at a side event arranged by the Norwegian Government at the United Nations’ Commission on Sustainable Development, in New York City, 8 May 2007. Presentations provided during meetings in Oslo (February 2006) Rome (September 2006), Stockholm (December 2006), Lisbon (February 2007) and Capri (April 2007).
“Values and Ethics in Sustainable Development,” at the International Conference on Sustainable Development, Lisbon, Portugal, February 2007.
“`World Religion,’ `Nature Religion,’ and the Quest for Sustainability,” at the conference, “Religion, the Environment and Development: The potential for Partnership?” hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), Oslo, November 2006.
“Blurring boundaries
– Where do religious environmental organizations end and secular ones
begin?” at the conference, “Religious NGOs, Civil Society and the Aid System,”
an Exploratory Workshop sponsored by the European Science Foundation/Standing
Committee on Social Science, Oslo, November 2006.
“The Past and Future of the Religion and Nature Field,” keynote address, at the conference, “Critical Perspectives on Religion and the Environment,” sponsored by the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, and the Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Leeds University; meeting held at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, Birmingham, United Kingdom, September 2006.
“Religion and Nature—the Emerging Field,” Centre for Human Ecology, Glasgow, Scotland, September 2006.
“Environmental Ethics and Religion in Reaction to the Crisis of Nature,” plenary address, at the International Environment Symposium, sponsored by the Presidency of Machelievler Municipality, Istanbul (Turkey), June 2006.
“Religion and Ethics in Models for Sustainability,” prepared comments for “Sustainability and Democracy: a Need for Alternatives,” a preparatory workshop in advance of the 2007 International Conference on the 20th Anniversary of the Brundtland Report, Center for Environment and Development, Universitetet i Oslo (Norway), February 2006.
“Surfing and Nature Religion,” Universitetet i Oslo (Norway), February 2006.
“Globalizing Green Religion: Nature Religion from Deep Ecology, to Radical Environmentalism, and the United Nations,” Universitetet i Bergen (Norway), February 2006.
“Religion and the Environment in the International Context,” plenary presentation, Religion and Environment in Europe Workshop, sponsored by the European Science Foundation, Benediktbeuern, Germany, June 2005.
“Revisiting Ecoterrorism,”
Religion(en) im Konflict conference, Deutchen Verreinigung fur
Religionsgeschichte, Erfurt Germany, 28 September 2003.
“Civil Earth Religion and the Sacralization of the
Biosphere,” Environment, Religion, and Globalized Spaces, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 25&26 September 2003.
“A Green Future for Ritual and
Religion?” keynote presentation, African Religion and Ritual Conference,
National Science Foundation, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa,
September 2003.
“Religion & Ecology: Visions for an Emerging Academic Field,” plenary speaker for the annual conference, “Religious Studies in Secondary Schools,” Toronto Canada, November 2002.
“Religion, Nature,
and Religious Studies,” International Association for the History of Religions
Congress, Durban, South Africa, August 2000.
“First International Workshop for the Study of Millennial
Movements and Violence, using Morphological Analysis,” sponsored by FOA
(Swedish National Defense Research Establishment), Stockholm Sweden, July 2000.
“Diggers, Wolves, Ents, Elves
and Expanding Universes: Global Bricolage and the Question of Violence within
the Subcultures of Radical Environmentalism,” for conference on “Rejected and
Suppressed Knowledge: The Racist Right and the Cultic Milieu,” Sponsored by the
Center for Migration Studies and the Swedish National Council for Crime
Prevention, Stockholm University, February 1997.
“Evoking the Ecological Self:
Art and Ritual Resistance to the War on Nature,” International Transpersonal
Association, 13th Annual Conference, Killarney, Ireland. Also during a Deep Ecology symposium
gave presentation entitled “The International Deep Ecology Movement: Lessons
from the Front Lines,” May 1994.
Domestic
“Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Quest for Sustainability." Keynote Address, Conference on Humanities and Sustainability, Florida Gulf Coast University, May 2009.
“From Earth Day to Earth Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Quest for Sustainability." Earth Day lecture, Syracuse University, April 2009.
“Beyond Taboo: The Interdisciplinary Imperative in Environmental and Sustainability Studies.” Wrigley Lecture, Arizona State University, November 2008. Also presented on “The Humanities & Sustainability Studies: Gaining Place at the Table.”
“Science
& Spirituality: Making the Connection in the Cause of Conservation,”
keynote presentation, 4th International
Partners in Flight Conference entitled “Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds,
Habitats and People,” McAllen, Texas, February 2008.
“Thinking like a Watershed: Spirituality, Ethics and the History of Watershed Organizing in the United States,” plenary speaker, Symposium on Sustainable Water Resources, University of Florida Water Institute, February 2008.
“Bounding Paganism: Reflections on the Boundaries of the Scholarly Construction of Paganism,” Association for the Sociology of Religion, New York City, August 2007.
“Our Common Future: Twenty Years On,” co-presenter with four others of the work of the Oslo Sustainability Initiative, at a side event arranged by the Norwegian Government at the United Nations’ Commission on Sustainable Development Meeting, New York City, 8 May 2007.
“Sustainability Politics from the Ecotone to the Biosphere,” Invited Lecture, Northern Arizona University, May 2007.
“Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front: Exploring the Religious Dimensions of the Radical Environmental Movement through Sound, Performance and Art,” and “Surfing as Nature Religion,” Carleton College (Minnesota), February 2007.
“The Spirituality, Ritualizing and Activism of Radical Environmentalism,” College of Charleston (South Carolina), October 2006.
“A Green Future for Religion and the Earth?,” plenary presentation for the inaugural conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, The University of Florida, April 2006.
“Surfing into Spirituality,” International Society for the
Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, The University of Florida, April 2006
“From the Ground Up: Growing a Green Future for Religion and Ethics,” invited lecture for the “Ethics, Values, and the Environment” conference, co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, and the Center for the Environment, Harvard University, March 2006.
“Globalization and Earth-Based Spiritualities,” Hamilton College, public lecture (and classroom visits), March 2006.
“Religion,
Nature, and Ecology: An Ethical Mix?,” four presentations over two days as
featured presenter for the annual conference of the Council for Spiritual and
Ethical Education, Washington DC, April 2005.
“Earth First!, Ritual, and Nature Religion,” Rubenstein
School of Environment and Natural Resources, The
University of Vermont, October 2004.
“The Future of the Humanities in Environmental Education,”
University Lecture, The University of North Texas, February 2005.
“Radical Environmentalism and Bioregionalism: The Promise
and Peril of Dark Green Religion,” University Lecture, Syracuse University,
September 2004.
“Earth First!, Ritual, and Nature Religion,” Rubenstein
School of Environment and Natural Resources, The
University of Vermont, October 2004.
“Teaching Science in Religion and Ecology Curricula,”
Seminar on Teaching Religion and Ecology, Indiana University, October 2003.
“The United Nations and the Future of Sustainability
Politics,” keynote presentation, Roots and Shoots Conference (Jane Goodall
Institute), Warren Wilson College, April 2003.
“Eco-Anarchy or Eco-Law?: Sustainability Politics and
Spirituality from Radical Environmentalism to the World Summit on
Sustainability,” keynote presentation, 9th Annual Public Interest
Environmental conference on “Saving What’s Left”, the University of Florida Law
School, February 2003.
“Revolutionary Environmentalism: Promise or Peril?,”
keynote presentation, “Revolutionary Ecology” conference, California State
University, Fresno, January 2003.
“Global Ethics and the World Summit on Sustainable
Development: Johannesburg and the Future of Sustainability Politics,” keynote
presentation, Earth Charter Summit, the University of Wisconsin, September 2002.
“Radical Environmentalism and
Bioregionalism: The Promise and Peril of Dark Green Religion,” Anthropology
Forum, California State University Chico, April 2002.
“Dark Green Religion and
Bioregional Politics: Toward Ecotopia or Catastrophe?,” Yulee Seminar,
University of Florida (Gainesville), April 2001.
“Who is Who Resisting the WTO?: The Roots of the Anti-Globalization Protest in the United States,” keynote address for the conference “Green Protest: Activism to Protect the Environment Around the Globe,” co-sponsored by the German Historical Institute and Florida State University, Tallahassee Florida, December 2000.
“Terrorism and Beyond: the 21st
Century,” discussant, for “Terrorism and Beyond” conference, Oklahoma City,
April 2000.
“Green Religion in the Western United States: Mapping the terrain from
Bioregional Deep Ecology to Terrapolitan Earth Religion,”
Wirth Forum on Religion, Nature, and the West, sponsored by the Center of the
American West, University of Colorado, March 2000.
“Environmental Resistance:
Lessons from the Front Lines,” Earth Day keynote address, Swarthmore College,
Swarthmore Pennsylvania, April 1999.
“Earth and Nature-Based
Spirituality: From Radical Environmentalism to Scientific Paganism,”
presentation for a “Consultation on Spirituality,” funded by the Henry Luce
Foundation of New York and sponsored by the Religious Studies Department at
University of California, Santa Barbara, March 1998.
“Grassroots Resistance to
Deforestation in the United States: Reading the Tactical Landscape,” Western
Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, March 1998.
“Globalization, Religion, and Terrorist
Violence in the Cultic Milieu of Radical Environmentalism,” Religion and
Environmentalism Section, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, San
Diego, November 1997.
“Bioregionalism: an Ethics of
Loyalty to Place,” presentation for a roundtable conference on “Bioregionalism
and its Influence in Europe in the United States,” Dumbarton Oaks (The Harvard
University Center for the Study of Landscape Architecture), Washington DC,
April 1997.
“Environmental Resistance:
Lessons from the Front Lines,” Earth Day keynote address, University of
Wisconsin Stout, April 1997.
“Earth First!, Native Nations,
and Radical Religion,” satellite lecture, Arctic Sivunmun Ilisagvik College,
Barrow, Alaska, April 1997.
“Locating the Sacred: the
Controversy over the Mount Graham International Observatory,” plenary speaker
and panelist for OnSite/InSight: Nature, Humanity, and Time; a Symposium on
Landscape History. Pennsylvania State University, June 1996.
“Environmental Paganism and
Ecological Resistance: Problems and Prospects in the Global Context,” plenary
speaker and panelist, at the conference entitled Ecological Resistance
Movements: Religion, Politics, Ethics. University of Wisconsin Madison,
November 1995.
“Popular Ecological Resistance
Movements: Trends and Tendencies in the Global Context,” Environmental Politics
and Policy Section, Western Political Science Association Meeting, Portland
Oregon, March 1995.
“Art, Religion, Ritual, and
Ecological Resistance in the North American Deep Ecology Movement,” seminar
presented to the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of
Wisconsin Madison, October 1994.
“A Planetary Tour of Ecological
Resistance Movements,” featured speaker sponsored by the Wisconsin Institute
for Peace and Conflict Studies. Presentations at two Wisconsin universities,
Spring 1994.
“The Global Emergence of
Militant Environmentalism,” Environmental Studies Section, International
Studies Association, Washington, D.C., March 1994.
“Radical Environmentalism,”
invited presentation, Environmental Studies Program, University of Southern
California, February 1994.
“Earth or Outer Space as Sacred
Place: the Battle over the Mount Graham International Observatory,” faculty
colloquium, the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., November
1993.
“Environmental Paganism and
Musical Ritualizing: Field Recordings from Earth First! Wilderness Gatherings,”
plenary address, North American Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference, Weber
State University, Ogden Utah, November 1993.
“The Primal Spirituality and
Musical Ritualizing of Earth First!,” featured speaker, sponsored by the
Wisconsin Institute for the Study of War, Peace, and Global cooperation. Presentation at St. Norbert’s College, DePere
Wisconsin, April 1993.
“Affirmative Action at Work:
Law, Politics, and Ethics,” featured speaker, sponsored by the Wisconsin
Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Presentations at three Colleges and Universities, Fall 1992
“Affirmative Action at Work:
Battleground of Competing Values,” keynote address, Ethics in Public Life
lecture series, Kansas Wesleyan University, September 1992.
“Earth First!’s Primal
Spirituality,” public lecture, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas,
September 1992.
Seminar on Radical
Environmentalism, The Land Institute, Salina, Kansas, September 1992.
“Ecowarriors and the Global
Apocalypse: the Primal Spirituality of Earth First!,” featured speaker,
sponsored by the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. Presentations at four Wisconsin
Colleges and Universities, Spring 1992.
“Earth First!’s Spiritual
Politics,” seminar sponsored by the Center for Energy and Environmental
Studies, Princeton University, August 1991.
“A Portrait of the Ethics and
Politics of Earth First!,” Invited plenary presentation, 5th annual Casassa
Conference entitled Ecological Prospects: Theory and Practice. Loyola Marymount
University, Los Angeles, March 1991.
American Academy of Religion (Annual Meetings)
“Ecoterrorism,
and the Asylum: Crazy Cases from Earth First! to the Unabomber and the Earth
Liberation Front,” Law, Religion & Culture Group, and respondent to papers
in a session entitled “Putting Your Self Out There: Risk and Faith in
Fieldwork,” Anthropology of Religion Group, Chicago, Illinois, November 2008.
“The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature,” respondent to a
panel of scholars evaluating this work, in a special session sponsored by the Journal
for the American Academy of Religion, San Diego, California, November 2007.
“Dark Green
Religion: Gaian Earth Spirituality, Neo-Animism, and the Transformation of
Global Environmental Politics,” Religion and
Ecology Group, San
Diego, California, November 2007.
“Surfing into Spirituality,” New Religious Movements Group,
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, November 2005.
“Disney Worlds at War,” Religion and Ecology Group, San Antonio, Texas, November
2004.
“The Earth in Play: Globalization and Religious Ethics at
the World Summit on Sustainable Development,” Ethics Section, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2003.
“Religion and Ethics at the United Nation’s sponsored World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa,” Religion and
Ecology Group, Atlanta,
Georgia, November 2003.
“World
Religions and Ecology: The Harvard Book Series and Beyond,” discussant, Religion and
Ecology Group, Denver Colorado, November 2001.
“Establishing Green Religion,”
Religion and Law, and Indigenous Studies Sections, Nashville Tennessee,
November 2000.
“Bioregional Deep Ecology as
Social Philosophy: A Critique and Proposal for a Terrapolitan, Planetary, Civic
Earth Religion,” Ethics Section, Boston Massachusetts, November 1999.
“Countercultural Bioregionalism:
From Spiritual Roots to the Transformation of Resource Regimes,” Religion and
Ecology Group, Orlando Florida, November 1998.
“Nature Religion as a Theoretical
Construct: Reflections from an Emerging Field,” panelist, Comparative Studies
in Religion and New Religious Movements Sections, Orlando Florida, November
1998.
“Pagan Environmentalism and
Green Apocalypticism – from Global Bricolage to the Question of
Violence,” New Religious Movements Group, San Francisco, November 1997.
“When is Apocalypticism
Millenarian? Reflections Based on
the Subcultures of Radical Environmentalism,” Millennialism Studies
Consultation, San Francisco, November 1997.
“Giving the Devil its Due, or
Your Soul? – Questions for Callicott’s ‘Postmodern’ Environmental
Ethics,” Ecology and Religion Group, New Orleans, November 1996.
“Defending Livelihoods:
Religious Movements toward Ecological Justice,” Ecology and Religion Group,
Philadelphia, November 1995.
“Beginning the Dialogue: Native
Voices and Environmental Concerns,” respondent during this session co-sponsored
by the Native Traditions in the Americas Group and the Religion and Ecology
Group, Philadelphia, November 1995.
“Environmental Paganism and the
Resacralization of Turtle Island,” Ecology and Religion Group, Chicago,
November 1994.
“Empirical and Normative
Reflections on Deep Ecology’s Appropriation of Native American Spiritualities,”
North American Religion Section, Washington, D.C., November 1993.
“Evoking the Ecological Self:
Art as Resistance in Deep Ecology’s Spiritual Politics,” Upper Midwest Regional
Conference, April 15, 1993.
“Musical Liturgy and Sacred
Space in Earth First!’s Primal Spirituality,” Comparative Studies in Religion
Section, San Francisco, December 1992.
“Asian Spirituality in Earth
First!’s Religious Radicalism,” North American Religion Section, Kansas City,
November 1991.
“Affirmative Action in Theory
and Practice,” Ethics Section, convener and panelist, Anaheim, CA, November
1989.
“Putting Our House in Order:
Affirmative Action and the Academy,” Ethics Section, Chicago, November 1988.
“Affirmative Action and Moral
Meaning: toward a Descriptive and Normative Ethical Analysis of Affected Group Attitudes,”
Ethics Section, Boston, December 1987.