Faculty Notes
From GMC Journal
Week of April 29, 2013
Prof. Heather Keith (philosophy) is co-authoring a book titled Intellectual Disability: Ethics, Dehumanization and a New Moral Community which will be released in May 2013. The book, published by Wiley-Blackwell, presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the roots and evolution of the dehumanization of people with intellectual disabilities.
"Green Mountains Walking:
Reflections on Buddhism,
Embodied Morality, and Places
in an Age of Globalization"
From GMC Journal
Week of April 22, 2013
Join William Edelglass, professor of philosophy and environmental studies at Marlboro College on Tuesday, April 23 at 4 p.m. in the East Room as he gives a lecture titled “Green Mountains Walking: Reflections on Buddhism, Embodied Morality, and Places in an Age of Globalization.”
Edelglass specializes in environmental philosophy, 20th century French and German thought, and Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.
Urban Farmers and Rural Cosmopolitans
From GMC Journal
Week of January 28, 2012
As part of the “Philosophy in Action” series, philosopher Lisa Heldke of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota will give a public talk titled “Urban Farmers and Rural Cosmopolitans? Pragmatist Musings on Contemporary Food Movements” on February 7 at 9:30 a.m. in the East Room.
Lisa Heldke is a professor of philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College, where she also teaches in the gender, women, and sexuality program. She is the author of Exotic Appetites: Ruminations of a Food Adventurer , and the co-editor of several other works, including Cooking, Eating, Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food , and Oppression Privilege and Responsibility.
With Ray Boisvert, she is currently writing a book tentatively called Philosophers at Table.
“Really though, I'm a bread baker,” she says.
Mark Coeckelbergh Presentation
From GMC Journal
Week of January 21, 2012
As part of the "Philosophy in Action" series, guest philosopher Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Twent, Netherlands) will give a public talk titled “Growing Moral Relations in Environmental Ethics: Technology, Imagination, and Principles” at GMC today, January 21, from 4 - 5:30 p.m. in the East Room. A portion of the event will be structured as a debate between Professor Coeckelbergh and GMC philosopher Steven Fesmire on the role of imagination in ethics.
Mark Coeckelbergh teaches philosophy of technology at the University of Twente, The Netherlands, and is managing director of the 3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology. He’ll visit several classes in addition to the public presentation.
This event is sponsored by the Speakers' Bureau, ELA, Philosophy, Environmental Studies, and the Philosophy Club.
Prof. Fesmire's Talk at The Farm Foundation Roundtable in Alabama
From GMC Journal
Week of January 21, 2013
Prof. Steven Fesmire (philosophy, environmental studies) gave a plenary talk at the Farm Foundation Roundtable in Mobile, Alabama on January 11, 2013. His topic was “Ethical Issues Facing Animal Agriculture.”
Publication of Prof. Fesmire's piece "A Durable and Humane Future for Animal Husbandry"
From GMC Journal
Week of January 14, 2013
Prof. Steven Fesmire’s (philosophy, environmental studies) opinion piece “A Durable and Humane Future for Animal Husbandry” was recently published in the 2012 winter issue of Animal Welfare Approved newsletter in which he emphasizes the importance of democracy in local food systems. “No diet exhaustively deals with all of the often-incompatible factors inherent in agriculture and eating,” Fesmire writes. “That is, there’s no such thing as the correct, best, or “natural” diet, determined in advance of the situations that require us to make dietary choices. Nor is there any single right way to reason about dietary choices. The problem we all face isn’t the lack of a dietary compass; it’s that conventional dietary choices and farming methods do nothing to move us toward a more humane, just, and sustainable food system.” Read here.
William Throop and Prof. Steven Fesmire co-author
From GMC Journal
Week of September 3, 2012
William Throop (provost, philosophy) and prof. Steven Fesmire (philosophy, environmental studies) recently co-authored “Environmental Pragmatism” for America Goes Green: An Encyclopedia of Eco-Friendly Culture in the United States (2012).
Prof. Steven Fesmire's presentation on "Ecological Imagination in Moral Education
From GMC Journal
Week of August 27, 2012
Steven Fesmire (philosophy, environmental studies) gave an invited plenary presentation on “Ecological Imagination in Moral Education” at Oxford University for the spring 2012 meeting of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. Fesmire also led a workshop this summer at Solarfest on “Sustainability Philosophy: Why Ecological Imagination Now?”
Susanne Claxton: The Good Life
From the GMC Journal
Week of March 19, 2012
Prof. Susanne Claxton (philosophy) will give a presentation titled “The Good Life” this Tuesday, March 20 at 7 p.m. in the Gorge. Taking cues from both the Ancients and the Existentialists, Susanne will explore the idea that it is only in the cultivation of a life of creativity and spirituality that the individual’s pursuit of happiness, freedom, and authenticity may be realized. This presentation is sponsored by the GMC Agora Philosophy Club.
Food and Philosophy at GMC
From the GMC Journal
Week of September 19, 2011
Raymond Boisvert, a leader of the new “convivialist” movement blending food with philosophy, gave a public talk at Green Mountain College on Thursday, September 22, at 4 p.m. in the East Room. The topic of his talk was “Convivialism Explored: How the Sick the Weak and the Parasitic Became new Paradigms for Philosophy and Evolution.” Raymond Boisvert received an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a Ph. D. from Emory University. A specialist in American philosophy, he has two books on John Dewey and many articles on Pragmatism.
Keith Presents Paper at American Philosophy Meeting
From the GMC Journal
Week of April 11, 2011
Prof. Heather Keith (philosophy) presented her paper "Pragmatist-Feminists Gone Wild: Addams, Noddings, and a Relational Approach to Environmental Ethics" at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy in Spokane, Wash., March 10-12.
Fesmire Presents Paper at American Philosophy Meeting
From the GMC Journal
Week of April 11, 2011
Prof. Steven Fesmire (philosophy, environmental studies) presented his paper "Ecological Imagination in Moral Education, East and West" at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy in Spokane, Wash., March 10-12. Fesmire also presented a paper as part of a panel discussion with psychologist Roger Fouts, director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University.
Throop Chosen for National Leadership Seminar
From the GMC Journal
Week of May 3, 2010
Provost Bill Throop (philosophy) is one of 25 chief academic officers nationwide selected to participate in a seminar on "Leadership for the 21st Century for Chief Academic Officers" that will be held July 12–16 in Annapolis, Maryland. This highly competitive leadership development program is intended to foster the perspectives and skills of college and university chief academic officers that can lead to success in unpredictable times. The program is offered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), a national association of more than 600 independent, liberal arts colleges and universities, and the American Academic Leadership Institute (AALI), which provides leadership identification and development programs across all sectors of public and private higher education.
Fesmire Publishes Article Titled "Environmental Imagination"
From the GMC Journal
Week of April 19, 2010
This summer the journal Environmental Ethics will publish Prof. Steven Fesmire’s (philosophy and environmental studies) article titled “Ecological Imagination.” Fesmire argues that ecological thinking is fundamentally imaginative, at least in the sense that it requires simulations and projections shaped by metaphors, images, narratives, and semantic frames. A fine-tuned ecological imagination, he says, is a capacity we already count on in our best environmental writers, educators, scientists, and policy analysts. His article explores the nature and function of imagination in deliberation; examines part of the conventional repertoire of English-language metaphors for conceiving ecosystemic interdependence; and contextualizes ecological imagination as a type of relational imagination.
Faculty Colloquium Series Continues April 7
From the GMC Journal
Week of April 6, 2010
“A Fulbrighter in Kyoto, Japan: Ecological Imagination, East and West” is the title for a faculty colloquium hosted by Prof. Steve Fesmire (philosophy) April 7. It will be held from 12 – 1 p.m. in Terrace 124. This presentation explores some eastern and western intellectual resources for conceiving interrelatedness, briefly explains the notion of ecological imagination, then explores some aims for contemporary moral education if it is to contribute to greater environmental responsibility.
Japanese Journal Publishes Fesmire Article
From the GMC Journal
Week of February 22, 2010
An article on Green Mountain College and Vermont by Prof. Steven Fesmire (philosophy and environmental studies) was recently published in Japanese translation in the journal Human and Environmental Forum. The journal is published by Kyoto University's Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies. View the article here.
Fesmire Presents Paper in Beijing, China
From the GMC Journal
Week of February 1, 2010
Steven Fesmire (philosophy & environmental studies) recently presented a paper on "Ecological Imagination in Moral Education, East and West" at Beijing University of Foreign Studies in Beijing, China. The December 2009 conference explored intersections between the social and moral philosophies of John Dewey and Confucius. At the conference Fesmire was presented with the new 2009 Peking University Press translation of his book John Dewey and Moral Imagination. The book is part of a new American Philosophy Translation Series co-edited by Roger Ames (University of Hawai'i) and Larry Hickman (Southern Illinois University at Carbondale).
GMC Provost Featured in Sustainability
Roundtable Discussion
From the GMC Journal
Week of January 18, 2010
Provost Bill Throop (philosophy) was one of six education professionals to be featured in a discussion in the December 2009 issue of Sustainability: The Journal of Record. The group talked about "why some professors are keeping sustainability out of their classrooms and how to bring all, or at least more, hands on deck." Paul Rowland, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, served as moderator for the discussion.
