EDUCATION 

 

2023    PhD     Philosophy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Dissertation: The Hopes of Rewilding

Dr. Matt Ferkany (chair), Dr. Paul B. Thompson,

Dr. Gretel A. Van Wieren, Dr. Kevin C. Elliot

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2017    MA     Environmental Philosophy, University of Montana, Missoula, MT

                             With Graduate Certificate in Natural Resource Conflict Resolution

 

2010    MLitt Institute of Theology Imagination and the Arts, University of St Andrews, Scotland

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2007    BA     Philosophy and Theology, Eastern University, St. Davids, PA

 

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS 

 

2022-2025       University of Montana, Visiting Professor in Philosophy, 3-year contract

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2025-Present  International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), Committee Member for conference planning, membership management, strategic planning

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AWARDS AND HONORS

 

2024    Matthew Hansen Endowment for Wilderness Studies, Wilderness Inspiration Fellowship. Award funded 200-mile backcountry walk through Montana/Idaho’s Great Burn (Hoodoo roadless area) to document wilderness characteristics and use. This was part of a larger creative-non-fiction/memoir project on wildness and US Public Lands.

 

2023    Holmes Rolston III Early Career Essay Prize in Environmental Philosophy, The International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), for “Rewilding Anthropocentrism,” forthcoming 2024 in Environmental Ethics.

 

2022     Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Michigan State University

 

2019, 2021 Slaughter Summer Writing Scholarship

 

2019    Engaged Philosophy Fellowship, MSU-funded ecological history research with Mountain Legacy Project, University of Victoria

 

2018     University Distinguished Fellowship, Michigan State University

 

PUBLICATIONS 

    

Current Projects

2027    Board Member and Section Editor: Editing the largest section, “Main Theoretical Currents,” for Handbook of Environmental Philosophy, Eds. TR Kover and Nathan Kowalsky, Springer.

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2027    Book Chapter: “Conservation and the Good Life” to be published in Environmental Ethics Evolves: A Collaborative Introduction, Eds. Arthur Obst and Linde De Vroey, Routledge.

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2027    Book Chapter: “‘They can only be drawn in Love’: The Force and Practice of the Poetic in Holmes Rolston III,” to be published in Walking with Holmes (working title), a memorial anthology honoring Holmes Rolston III, Ed. Kenneth Shockley, Routledge.

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2026    Book Chapter: “A Technological Environment: Albert Borgmann in the Digital Worlds" to be published in Finding our Place in the Digital World: Philosophical Essays on Technology, Phenomenology, and the Environment. Eds. Mike Butler & Ian Werkheiser, The Center for Collaboration and Ethics, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

 

Refereed Articles

2025    “Rewilding Anthropocentrism.” Environmental Ethics. 47.1: 5-22 

 

2025    with M. Joseph Aloi. “We’ve Found Something Good Here: Deictic Discourse and Environmental Engagement,” Environmental Ethics Special Issue 46.4: 421-436

 

Reviews

2025     Book Review: “Henry Dicks, The Biomimicry Revolution: Learning from Nature How to Inhabit the Earth.” Environmental Values. (forthcoming)

 

2024    Book Review: “Arnold ‘Smoke’ Elser & Eva-Maria Maggi. Hush of the Land: A Lifetime in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.” International Journal of Wilderness. Volume 30, No 2, 2024.

 

2019    Book Review: “Benjamin Hale. The Wild and the Wicked: On Nature and Human Nature,” Environmental Ethics. Volume 41, issue 3, Fall 2019. (pp 287-288)

 

Other Publications

2024    “A Fierce and Fearful Love: On Delisting the Grizzly.” The Missoulian. May 11th, 2024, p. A6. Op-ed. (598 words) Reprinted in Helena Independent Record, Billings gazette, Ravalli Republic, and The Montana Standard. 

 

2023     “In Memory of Albert Borgmann (1937 – 2023),” American Philosophical Association, Memorial Minutes, 2023. https://www.apaonline.org/page/memorial_minutes2023 

 

2022    “The Steps up Vineyard Hill: Urban Forest Restoration in Wheeling, WV.” Mustard Seed Mountain Paper, May 1st, 2022. p. 10-11. https://www.msmpaperwv.com/news/05-01-21-the-steps-up-vineyard-hill.

 

2019     “Who Do We Want to be Here?: Ecological History in the Canadian Rockies,” Research blog post on www.mountainlegacy.ca, Oct.1st, Cross-posted www.christopherjpreston.com – Sep. 23rd.

 

CONFERENCES

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Conferences Organized

2025    Vice-Chair of planning committee: International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), 22nd Annual Summer Meeting, University of Montana, June 8-12.

 

2020     Co-organized with Jared Talley: Elusive Conversations: Environmental Philosophy Confronts Environmental Governance. 15 presenters with keynote lectures by Andrew Light, Christopher Preston, and Deborah McGregor, Michigan State University, April 2-3. (Canceled for COVID)

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Presentations and Invited Talks

2025    “‘They can only be drawn in Love’: The Poetic in Holmes Rolston III,” Walking with Holmes: Memorial Conference for Holmes Rolston III, Colorado State University, September 19-21.

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2025    “Wilderness as (American) Architecture: Benton MacKaye’s Real Ethics,” Philosophy in the Wild conference, Sideling Hill Creek State Park, July 26.

 

2025    w/ Steven Vogel and M. Joseph Aloi, “Silence and Eloquent Nature: A conversation continued from the EE special issue on Steven Vogel’s work,” special panel presentation at ISEE 22nd Annual Summer Meeting, University of Montana, June 10.

 

2025    “Albert Borgman in the Digital Worlds,” conference presentation, University of Texas, Rio Grand Valley, March 1.

 

2024    “Love, Death, and Tears in Augustine’s Confessions,” invited talk, Davidson Honors College, University on Montana, September 25.

 

2024    Paper Commentary and Q&A: “Democratizing the wild: Revising global narratives, local agency, and democratic potential in rewilding,” International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) 21st Annual Summer Meeting. University of Fribourg, Switzerland. June 25.

 

2023    w/ Joey Aloi, “Eloquent Silence: Vogel and Borgmann on Speech and Practice,” Digital Worlds 

Workshop, Center for Collaboration and Ethics, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, May 23.

 

2020    “Two Conversations on Rewilding: Understanding the Larger History of Current Rewilding,” International Association of Environmental Philosophers (IAEP), Toronto, Canada, October 10. (Canceled for COVID)

 

2019    “Rewilding Land and Rewilding Life,” invited talk, Philosophy Colloquium, University of Montana, February 26.

 

2018    “Rewilding in Appalachia: Between Old and New Worlds,” a talk offered as part of an invited ten-day workshop organized by Professor Christopher Preston: Nature in the Anthropocene: Restoration and Rewilding, Monte Castello di Vibio. Italy, June 3–14.

 

2018    “Does Rewilding Make Sense in Appalachia?” Appalachian Studies Association Conference, 

Cincinnati, OH, April 6th.

 

2016     “‘All That Feeds Us’: Familiar Plants and Focal Practices in the Poetry of Marc Harshman” Appalachian Studies Association Conference, Shepherdstown, WV, March 19th.

 

FUNDED RESEARCH & INTERNSHIPS

 

2019    Ecological History Field Researcher, Mountain Legacy Project, University of Victoria, Canada

Professor Eric Higgs’ research team. Two months in the Canadian Rockies collecting systematic repeat photographs and field measurements to document landscape-level ecological change. In addition to research, provided mountaineering instruction and wilderness safety training for field team.

 

2016     Collaborative Restoration Intern, National Forest Foundation, Missoula, MT 

Facilitated collaborative planning efforts for restoration projects and forest planning processes on National Forests in Montana, Idaho, and New Mexico.

 

2016    Field Restoration Intern, Watershed Consulting, Missoula, MT

Prescribed burning, forest tree planting, riparian restoration, beaver-dam analogue restoration and monitoring.