Research
Find me on Academia
My academic writing
See my YouTube playlist of talks and lectures that I have given
Please see the Presentations section below as well as Links for more about my professional path.
My background has included an academic journey from philosophy into environmental studies and increasingly seeking to span interdisciplinary environmental humanities in conversation with real world environmental conflicts and solutions. I have traveled a course from drawing on wildness to resolve several theoretical issues with wilderness, including intellectual objections from William Cronon (namely that wilderness is dualistic and impedes local considerations and broader everyday action), from Jack Turner (that conservation lacks robust opportunities for experiential wildness), and practical ecological issues including insufficient size and interconnectedness. I called for recognizing a wildness that permeates our world, both within and beyond protected areas. This is a quality that we must and should accept and celebrate, including the wild resonance between us and world.
I coined the terms wild building and wild being: allowing the nonhuman wild to flourish not just in protected areas, but in our built world, while building our world to leave space for experiences of wildness, thereby cultivating the wildness within us.
I drew on flow as a metaphor—one with precedents in Thoreau’s famous reflections on the cutbank in Walden as well as his affirmation of wildness in Walking, in combination with Heidegger’s general critique of technology as standing reserve (importantly relying on the example of a free-flowing river in contrast to a dammed reservoir), and in Alan Watt’s interpretation of Taoist thought.
This theorization reflects a key theme of my work, bringing together continental and American (especially Transcendental and subsequent points of departure, namely the broader conservation tradition) in applied contexts.
I sought to again synthesize these two main lineages in my dissertation, drawing together a Heideggerian critique of modern science and technology—and thus modern thought more generally—novelly applied to ethics, with a Thoreauvian inspired wild ethics. Modern ethics, in my critique, in attempting to replicate the sciences, has succumbed to technological thinking, including, among other qualities, a calculative approach. This phrasing “wild ethics” was initially formulated independently by Edward Mooney and David Abram (the latter founding The Alliance for Wild Ethics; the former specifically named in reference to Thoreau as Thoreau’s Wild Ethics), but in each case with space for further development. I had two purposes in this: first, developing an ethic capable of keeping the wild in the practical context of conservation management (though also applicable in a broader context of for instance geoengineering and other large scale environmental interventions and thus to the concept of design); and second, reformulating ethics, by approaching it more holistically—not as a detached rational activity, which occurs within the confines of academic institutions, but rather importantly, as a skill that derives from experience “in the wild”, that is in everyday encounter, and thus including emotional and embodied dimensions. Wild ethics is “an ethic of encounter and scientific practice”—"an ethic, which, like…variants of knowing and design…begins with wild nature and is not simply an extension of modern thought expanded and applied to wild nature. Wild ethics, unlike modern theoretical ethics, starts with sensual experience of the wild—exemplified by places at the fringes of human control and deliberate manipulation—and an attentiveness to the wild aspects of human interiority and embodiment.” I identify the following as a primary lineage (while acknowledging potentially disparate tracks through indigenous traditions): Goethe – Humboldt – Thoreau – Muir – Leopold – Adolph Murie. “Each are exemplars, blurring barriers between ethics, epistemology, ontology, and lyric expression.”
Informing my dissertation and more recent work is a fundamental conundrum: the seeming contrast between the origins of conservation found in figures like Muir, Leopold, and Thoreau, and the scientific, technocratic management and legalistic frameworks that dominate today. I rely heavily on sensual encounter, including its ongoing need, morally and practically, in environmental management to partly resolve this. This led me to assess, following Thoreau, the relationship of the scientific and poetic, the sensual and the abstract, and thus to turn my attention to what is often now called “ways of knowing” to include assessments of poetic science, romantic science, Thoreau’s sympathy with intelligence, and traditional ecological knowledge, especially considering how these relate to environmental management and decision making. To broadly encompass these varying approaches, I offer the dichotomy of technics and poetics, where the latter leaves room for, is informed by, and perhaps even celebrates and cultivates, prolonged direct sensual encounter, to include ecstatic immersive perception; while the former strips these away. This mirrors another division I draw between the experiential and empirical.
I turned here to Edward Mooney’s concept of personal or lyric philosophy, reflected on Goethe and Humboldt, noting connections between 19th century German and American thought, including Nietzsche’s engagement with Emerson, beginning an alternate lineage through Heidegger and Foucault; incorporated precursors of phenomenology and critiques of technology and technocracy, especially Max Weber, to post-Heideggerian technological analysis, especially Albert Borgmann, who continues to inspire my work; and note some basic contemporary attempts to apply Goethean approaches to conservation.
During my Fulbright tenure, I began to further develop what has been termed conservation humanities, which increasingly melded into energy humanities given the specific issues I investigated in Iceland—the ongoing conflict between expanded renewable energy development and wilderness conservation. In my more recent publications, I explore the meaning, politics, and epistemic significance of nature, including controversies surrounding the term itself. I have lately turned to aesthetics, politics, energy, and the practicalities of environmental solutions.
Finally, I will point out that my journey has included practical and experiential work, notably for the National Park Service, and an array of international and outdoor explorations; as well as including empirical and artistic pursuits.
My academic writing
See my YouTube playlist of talks and lectures that I have given
Please see the Presentations section below as well as Links for more about my professional path.
My background has included an academic journey from philosophy into environmental studies and increasingly seeking to span interdisciplinary environmental humanities in conversation with real world environmental conflicts and solutions. I have traveled a course from drawing on wildness to resolve several theoretical issues with wilderness, including intellectual objections from William Cronon (namely that wilderness is dualistic and impedes local considerations and broader everyday action), from Jack Turner (that conservation lacks robust opportunities for experiential wildness), and practical ecological issues including insufficient size and interconnectedness. I called for recognizing a wildness that permeates our world, both within and beyond protected areas. This is a quality that we must and should accept and celebrate, including the wild resonance between us and world.
I coined the terms wild building and wild being: allowing the nonhuman wild to flourish not just in protected areas, but in our built world, while building our world to leave space for experiences of wildness, thereby cultivating the wildness within us.
I drew on flow as a metaphor—one with precedents in Thoreau’s famous reflections on the cutbank in Walden as well as his affirmation of wildness in Walking, in combination with Heidegger’s general critique of technology as standing reserve (importantly relying on the example of a free-flowing river in contrast to a dammed reservoir), and in Alan Watt’s interpretation of Taoist thought.
This theorization reflects a key theme of my work, bringing together continental and American (especially Transcendental and subsequent points of departure, namely the broader conservation tradition) in applied contexts.
I sought to again synthesize these two main lineages in my dissertation, drawing together a Heideggerian critique of modern science and technology—and thus modern thought more generally—novelly applied to ethics, with a Thoreauvian inspired wild ethics. Modern ethics, in my critique, in attempting to replicate the sciences, has succumbed to technological thinking, including, among other qualities, a calculative approach. This phrasing “wild ethics” was initially formulated independently by Edward Mooney and David Abram (the latter founding The Alliance for Wild Ethics; the former specifically named in reference to Thoreau as Thoreau’s Wild Ethics), but in each case with space for further development. I had two purposes in this: first, developing an ethic capable of keeping the wild in the practical context of conservation management (though also applicable in a broader context of for instance geoengineering and other large scale environmental interventions and thus to the concept of design); and second, reformulating ethics, by approaching it more holistically—not as a detached rational activity, which occurs within the confines of academic institutions, but rather importantly, as a skill that derives from experience “in the wild”, that is in everyday encounter, and thus including emotional and embodied dimensions. Wild ethics is “an ethic of encounter and scientific practice”—"an ethic, which, like…variants of knowing and design…begins with wild nature and is not simply an extension of modern thought expanded and applied to wild nature. Wild ethics, unlike modern theoretical ethics, starts with sensual experience of the wild—exemplified by places at the fringes of human control and deliberate manipulation—and an attentiveness to the wild aspects of human interiority and embodiment.” I identify the following as a primary lineage (while acknowledging potentially disparate tracks through indigenous traditions): Goethe – Humboldt – Thoreau – Muir – Leopold – Adolph Murie. “Each are exemplars, blurring barriers between ethics, epistemology, ontology, and lyric expression.”
Informing my dissertation and more recent work is a fundamental conundrum: the seeming contrast between the origins of conservation found in figures like Muir, Leopold, and Thoreau, and the scientific, technocratic management and legalistic frameworks that dominate today. I rely heavily on sensual encounter, including its ongoing need, morally and practically, in environmental management to partly resolve this. This led me to assess, following Thoreau, the relationship of the scientific and poetic, the sensual and the abstract, and thus to turn my attention to what is often now called “ways of knowing” to include assessments of poetic science, romantic science, Thoreau’s sympathy with intelligence, and traditional ecological knowledge, especially considering how these relate to environmental management and decision making. To broadly encompass these varying approaches, I offer the dichotomy of technics and poetics, where the latter leaves room for, is informed by, and perhaps even celebrates and cultivates, prolonged direct sensual encounter, to include ecstatic immersive perception; while the former strips these away. This mirrors another division I draw between the experiential and empirical.
I turned here to Edward Mooney’s concept of personal or lyric philosophy, reflected on Goethe and Humboldt, noting connections between 19th century German and American thought, including Nietzsche’s engagement with Emerson, beginning an alternate lineage through Heidegger and Foucault; incorporated precursors of phenomenology and critiques of technology and technocracy, especially Max Weber, to post-Heideggerian technological analysis, especially Albert Borgmann, who continues to inspire my work; and note some basic contemporary attempts to apply Goethean approaches to conservation.
During my Fulbright tenure, I began to further develop what has been termed conservation humanities, which increasingly melded into energy humanities given the specific issues I investigated in Iceland—the ongoing conflict between expanded renewable energy development and wilderness conservation. In my more recent publications, I explore the meaning, politics, and epistemic significance of nature, including controversies surrounding the term itself. I have lately turned to aesthetics, politics, energy, and the practicalities of environmental solutions.
Finally, I will point out that my journey has included practical and experiential work, notably for the National Park Service, and an array of international and outdoor explorations; as well as including empirical and artistic pursuits.
Presentations
Presentations: YouTube playlist
On Academic Work in Anchorage Reykjavik Akureyri Stavanger Tempe Delhi Aspen Carbondale and Norfolk.
On Adventures in Missoula Boulder Anchorage Denali and Talkeetna
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
Direct Encounters with Arctic Landscapes Panel Discussion Video (11/2022)
I arranged and participated in this panel discussion on the challenges and adventures of working in the Arctic, alongside two earth scientists, a scholar of Scandinavian language and historic climate, and a very accomplished Arctic photographer.
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
On Academic Work in Anchorage Reykjavik Akureyri Stavanger Tempe Delhi Aspen Carbondale and Norfolk.
On Adventures in Missoula Boulder Anchorage Denali and Talkeetna
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
Direct Encounters with Arctic Landscapes Panel Discussion Video (11/2022)
I arranged and participated in this panel discussion on the challenges and adventures of working in the Arctic, alongside two earth scientists, a scholar of Scandinavian language and historic climate, and a very accomplished Arctic photographer.
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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I could offer two main types of talks: outdoor adventure (woven through with environmental issues and ideas) and academic.
Outdoor Adventure
Outdoor Adventure
- Crossing Iceland by foot and packraft (with some focus on wilderness and energy)
- Lhotse Himalaya Expedition Climb (part of a science expedition - possibly my best adventure presentation)
- Crossing Alaska (not quite a full crossing, but a good bit, including Arctic and southcentral river trips)
- Perhaps an Arctic amalgamation (would have to build this one) including Arctic Alaska, Iceland, and Greenland
- Expeditions with Purpose: The Intersection of Adventure Photography with Pressing Environmental Issues (a broad amalgamation of my adventures, which includes desert southwest and other regions)
- Overview of wilderness philosophy and practical issues (would have to build this one, but could easily do it on fly largely). I have so much here it could honestly be a series or class, but a one off is great.
- A Case Study of a Wilderness Park in Arctic Alaska and Reflections on the Broader Context of Wilderness
- The Complex Relationship of Sustainability and Wilderness: Illustrated Through the Icelandic Case
- The Need for a Digital Wilderness Act (a primarily philosophical approach towards the relationship of technology and wilderness)
- Applying the Environmental Humanities to Conservation Management and Policy In Iceland (on wilderness and energy but specifically focused on Iceland)
- I could also do something more explicitly philosophical, centered on senses (vis-a-vis David Abram, Thoreau), ethics (I wrote my PhD in part furthering the idea of wild ethics), knowledge (especially considering the relation of indigenous knowledge to science and how this relates to land), possibly others.
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: