Research
Find me on Academia.
See my YouTube playlist of talks and lectures that I have given.
In 2021, I completed my PhD dissertation in Environmental Studies focused on the ethical implications of ways of knowing, especially in relation to conservation management.
I have aspirations to continue working in the Arctic, and to work internationally on behalf of protected and otherwise undeveloped areas and for the people who depend on such landscapes. I have a continued special interest on the cryosphere and its melting ice.
From March to June 2019, I participated in a research and climbing program in Sagamartha and Makalu Barun National Parks in the Himalayas of Nepal.
During summer and fall of 2017, I worked as a Wilderness Fellow in Montana, researching and writing three wilderness character narratives for the Anaconda-Pintler, Lee Metcalf, and Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness areas on behalf of the Forest Service.
During summers 2016 and 2018, I worked in Anaktuvuk Pass Village, Alaska as an independent researcher to better understand how subsistence access might be changing in order to help the Park especially, but also local Nunamiut tribal members, prepare for and revise relevant policies. This research involved interviewing elders and active subsistence users to understand their observations and perspectives in order that these might be incorporated into management and policy. I was attracted to this project in part to struggle with the cultural element of wild landscapes.
Please see the Publications and Presentations sections below as well as Links for further information.
See my YouTube playlist of talks and lectures that I have given.
In 2021, I completed my PhD dissertation in Environmental Studies focused on the ethical implications of ways of knowing, especially in relation to conservation management.
I have aspirations to continue working in the Arctic, and to work internationally on behalf of protected and otherwise undeveloped areas and for the people who depend on such landscapes. I have a continued special interest on the cryosphere and its melting ice.
From March to June 2019, I participated in a research and climbing program in Sagamartha and Makalu Barun National Parks in the Himalayas of Nepal.
During summer and fall of 2017, I worked as a Wilderness Fellow in Montana, researching and writing three wilderness character narratives for the Anaconda-Pintler, Lee Metcalf, and Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness areas on behalf of the Forest Service.
During summers 2016 and 2018, I worked in Anaktuvuk Pass Village, Alaska as an independent researcher to better understand how subsistence access might be changing in order to help the Park especially, but also local Nunamiut tribal members, prepare for and revise relevant policies. This research involved interviewing elders and active subsistence users to understand their observations and perspectives in order that these might be incorporated into management and policy. I was attracted to this project in part to struggle with the cultural element of wild landscapes.
Please see the Publications and Presentations sections below as well as Links for further information.
Publications, Media, and Presentations
PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA_______________________________________________________________________
I completed these two alongside the Absaroka-Beartooth Narrative: Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Character Narrative + Lee Metcalf Wilderness Character Narrative.
Works in Progress
Media About Me
CONFERENCES OR ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS_________________________________________________
Other Academic Conferences and Workshops Attended
Public Presentations
- The Unappreciated Significance and Source of Meaning in Wild Landscapes: An Arctic Case | 2024 | Environmental Values | Author Chris Dunn
- Sensing, Storytelling, and the Sacred: Two Creative Multimedia Projects Exploring Arctic Change | 2024 | Book Chapter in Artistic Witness and Response to Environmental Change in the Arctic | Author Chris Dunn
- Changing Climate, Changing Policy: Subsistence Use and Wilderness Values in Gates of the Arctic National Park | 2017 | George Wright Society: Connections Across People, Place, and Time | Author Chris Dunn
- Pulitzer Center Environmental Journalism (Stories of a Changing Greenland + Reports from COP26) | 2021 | Pulitzer Center | Author + Photographer Chris Dunn
- How A New Partnership with the U.S. National Park Service Could Help Greenland Grow Sustainable Tourism | August 25, 2022 | Arctic Today | Author Chris Dunn
- Tension and Trade-offs Between Protecting Biodiversity and Avoiding Climate Change
- Dispatches From the Cryosphere: Intimate Encounters with the Intricate and Disappearing Ice of Everest Base Camp July 25, 2019 | GlacierHub by Columbia University's Earth Institute | Author + Photographer Chris Dunn
- Journey Down the Susitna River Reveals Dam's True Cost
Feb 27, 2016 | Fairbanks News-Miner | Author Chris Dunn - From Glaciers to the Sea: Following the Entirety of Alaska’s Susitna River
2012-2013 | Ground Truth Trekking | Author + Photographer Chris Dunn - Raven’s Light | 2018 | CU-Boulder | Author + Photographer Chris Dunn
- Sensing Ice: Explorations of Knowing Nature | 2021 | CU-Boulder | Author + Photographer Chris Dunn
- Prior Conception and Inuit Knowledge in a Changing World
I completed these two alongside the Absaroka-Beartooth Narrative: Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Character Narrative + Lee Metcalf Wilderness Character Narrative.
Works in Progress
- Poetics as an Antidote to the Technocratic Management of Wild Nature | 2023 | In Progress | Author Chris Dunn
- Why Wilderness in Iceland? A Critical Assessment of Values Concerning the Central Highland | 2023 | In Progress | Author Chris Dunn
- Literary Landscapes of Iceland in Conversation with the U.S. | 2023 | In Progress | Author Chris Dunn
- The Moral and Ecological Rationales for Roadless Areas: An Icelandic Case Study | 2023 | In Progress | Author Chris Dunn
Media About Me
- Direct Encounters with Arctic Landscapes | 2022 | CU-Boulder | Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion
- Graduate Student Spotlight – CU Center for the Humanities and Arts – I was featured in this short article regarding my attendance at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland as a PhD student – 2021
- Denver 9 News – Sensing Ice – I was featured in this short local Denver TV news clip about an exhibit centered on my photography from Greenland, Iceland, and Nepal (See also and here) – 2022
CONFERENCES OR ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS_________________________________________________
- Topic TBD – 12th World Wilderness Congress – Rapid City, SD – 8/2024
- The Poetics of Knowing: The Goethean Ideal and Other Alternatives to Technological Science – Nature, Thinking from Romanticism and Idealism to Ecological Philosophy –The Association for Continental Philosophy of Religion International Conference – Liverpool, UK – 7/2024
- Do Clouds Have Politics? – Aesthetics, Ethics and Relational Being – Annual Conference of the Nordic Society for Aesthetics – Reykjavik, Iceland – 6/2024
- Sensing Ice: A Philosophical-Aesthetic Investigation of Immediacy and Mediation – Ice and Water: Circular Thinking on Cultural and Environmental Sustainability – Reykjavik, Iceland – 5/2024
- The Complex Relationship of Sustainability and Wilderness: Illustrated Through the Icelandic Case – Sustainability Conference – Akureyri, Iceland – 4/2024
- A Case Study of a Wilderness Park in Arctic Alaska and Reflections on the Broader Context of Wilderness – University of Akureyri Polar Law Public Lecture – Akureyri, Iceland – 3/2024
- Workshop and Research Talk – University of Stavanger Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities – Stavanger, Norway – 1/2024
- Fulbright in the Arctic: Meet the Scientists – Arctic Circle Assembly – Reykjavik, Iceland – 10/2023
- Poetics as an Antidote to the Technocratic Management of Wild Nature – After Earth? Religion and Technology on a Changing Planet – International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) – Tempe, AZ – 2/2023
- Finding and Losing Meaning in Melting Arctic Landscapes – Environmental Justice and Extreme Environments – International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) – Anchorage, AK – 6/2018
- Changing Climate, Changing Policy: Subsistence Use and Wilderness Values in Gates of the Arctic National Park – George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites – Norfolk, VA – 4/2017
- A Philosophical Consideration of the Spiritual and Cultural Values of Wilderness in Light of Indigenous Conceptions of Place + Gates of the Arctic National Park: A Case Study of Indigenous Livelihoods and the Nature-Culture Values of Wilderness in Arctic Alaska – The Culture-Nature Journey –ICOMOS/International Union for the Conservation of Nature – Delhi, India – 12/2017
Other Academic Conferences and Workshops Attended
- International Society for Environmental Ethics (commenter) – Allenspark, CO – 6/2023
- Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit (UN Human Rights) – Boulder, CO – 12/2022
- Public Philosophy Network Workshop on Field Philosophy – Rochester Institute of Technology – 6/2022
- COP26 (IPCC) – Glasgow, Scotland – 11/2021
- New York Times Climate Hub – Glasgow, Scotland – 11/2021
- Pulitzer Center Washington Week – 10/2021
- Svartárkot Culture-Nature (SCN) – Human Ecology and Culture at Lake Mývatn 1700 - present: Dimensions of Environmental and Cultural Change – Iceland – 8/2021
- National Wilderness Workshops (2017 + 2018)
- NASA Earth to Sky Interpreting Climate Change Workshop – Spokane, WA – 11/2017
- American Anthropological Association 114th Annual Meeting – Denver, CO – 11/2015
- World Parliament of Religions (Volunteer) – Salt Lake City, UT – 10/2015
- National Wilderness Conference – 50th Anniversary – Albuquerque, NM – 10/2014
- Kachemak Bay Writers Conference – Homer, AK – 6/2014
Public Presentations
- Expeditions with Purpose: The Intersection of Adventure Photography with Pressing Environmental Issues – Höfn, Iceland – 2024
- Adventures by Packraft from the Arctic to the Desert – Boulder, CO – 2022
- Nepal Research and Mountainering Expedition (2019) Presentation – Missoula, MT – 2020
- Susitna River: From Glaciers to the Sea – Talkeetna + Anchorage + Denali, Alaska – 2013
Teaching
COURSES TAUGHT______________________________________________________________________________
Instructor of Record
Intro to Philosophy and Religious Thought – PHR100 – Rocky Mountain College (2023)
Ethics – PHR303 – Rocky Mountain College (2023)
Contemporary Philosophy: Pragmatism – PHR375 – Rocky Mountain College (2023)
Energy and Society – HASS 490 – Colorado School of Mines (2022 [1 semester])
Environmental Writing – ENVS 3020 – University of Colorado, Boulder (2015-2017 [4 semesters])
Introduction to Philosophy – PHIL 1301 – Central Texas College (2010-2015 [4 semesters])
World Religions – PHIL 1304 – Central Texas College (2010-2015 [2 semesters])
Teaching Assistant (all at University of Colorado, Boulder)
Intro to Human Dimensions of Environmental Studies (politics, values, etc.) – ENVS 1001 – Fall 2021
Intro to Environmental Studies (natural science focus) – ENVS 1000 – Spring 2021
Risk and Resilience in Society (Sociology) – SOCY 4063 – Fall 2019
Sociology of Death and Dying – SOCY 3045 – Fall 2019 + Spring 2020
Exploring Culture and Gender through Film (Anthropology) – ANTH 1170 – Fall 2018
Capstone—Critical Thinking in Environmental Studies: Resilience in Complex Systems – ENVS 4800 – Spring 2018
Capstone—Critical Thinking in Environmental Studies: Risk and Resilience – ENVS 4800 – Spring 2018
Grader
Environmental Ethics – ENVS 3140 – University of Colorado, Boulder – Spring 2018
Existentialism – PHIL 105 – University of Montana – Spring 2008
Introduction to Ethics – University of Montana
Instructor of Record
Intro to Philosophy and Religious Thought – PHR100 – Rocky Mountain College (2023)
Ethics – PHR303 – Rocky Mountain College (2023)
Contemporary Philosophy: Pragmatism – PHR375 – Rocky Mountain College (2023)
Energy and Society – HASS 490 – Colorado School of Mines (2022 [1 semester])
Environmental Writing – ENVS 3020 – University of Colorado, Boulder (2015-2017 [4 semesters])
Introduction to Philosophy – PHIL 1301 – Central Texas College (2010-2015 [4 semesters])
World Religions – PHIL 1304 – Central Texas College (2010-2015 [2 semesters])
Teaching Assistant (all at University of Colorado, Boulder)
Intro to Human Dimensions of Environmental Studies (politics, values, etc.) – ENVS 1001 – Fall 2021
Intro to Environmental Studies (natural science focus) – ENVS 1000 – Spring 2021
Risk and Resilience in Society (Sociology) – SOCY 4063 – Fall 2019
Sociology of Death and Dying – SOCY 3045 – Fall 2019 + Spring 2020
Exploring Culture and Gender through Film (Anthropology) – ANTH 1170 – Fall 2018
Capstone—Critical Thinking in Environmental Studies: Resilience in Complex Systems – ENVS 4800 – Spring 2018
Capstone—Critical Thinking in Environmental Studies: Risk and Resilience – ENVS 4800 – Spring 2018
Grader
Environmental Ethics – ENVS 3140 – University of Colorado, Boulder – Spring 2018
Existentialism – PHIL 105 – University of Montana – Spring 2008
Introduction to Ethics – University of Montana
Presentations
The Complex Relationship of Sustainability and Wilderness: Illustrated Through the Icelandic Case 2024
Expeditions with Purpose: The Intersection of Adventure Photography with Pressing Environmental Issues 2022
Boulder Nerd Nite: Are Glaciers an Endangered Species? 2019
Nepal Research and Mountainering Expedition (2019) Presentation 2019
Gates of the Arctic National Park: A Case Study of Indigenous Livelihoods and the Nature-Culture Values of Wilderness in Arctic Alaska Dec 21, 2017 | ICOMOS/IUCN
A Philosophical Consideration of the Spiritual and Cultural Values of Wilderness in Light of Indigenous Conceptions of Place Dec 21, 2017 | ICOMOS/IUCN
Susitna River: From Glaciers to the Sea PowerPoint Presentation 2014
Koyaanisqatsi - A Philosophical Analysis 2009
Expeditions with Purpose: The Intersection of Adventure Photography with Pressing Environmental Issues 2022
Boulder Nerd Nite: Are Glaciers an Endangered Species? 2019
Nepal Research and Mountainering Expedition (2019) Presentation 2019
Gates of the Arctic National Park: A Case Study of Indigenous Livelihoods and the Nature-Culture Values of Wilderness in Arctic Alaska Dec 21, 2017 | ICOMOS/IUCN
A Philosophical Consideration of the Spiritual and Cultural Values of Wilderness in Light of Indigenous Conceptions of Place Dec 21, 2017 | ICOMOS/IUCN
Susitna River: From Glaciers to the Sea PowerPoint Presentation 2014
Koyaanisqatsi - A Philosophical Analysis 2009
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Other
The following three documents are not not final, public documents, but were the finished versions I gave over to the USFS in 2017:
- Gates of the Arctic George Wright Proceedings Article
- Gates of the Arctic ICOMOS/IUCN Delhi India PowerPoint Presentation
- Gates of the Arctic Young Leaders in Climate Change Bio + Project Description
- Gates of the Arctic YLCC Internship Announcement
The following three documents are not not final, public documents, but were the finished versions I gave over to the USFS in 2017: