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Dr. Mitchell Thomashow |
Dr. Mitchell Thomashow will give a public lecture on Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. in the Copley Science Building, Room 100.
The lecture, “Environmental Leadership: The Role of Higher Education in Addressing Global Problems,” will be presented in conjunction with Earth Day 2009. This event is free and open to the public.
Thomashow’s visit was coordinated by Drs. Reber Dunkel (sociology) and Brian Moores (chemistry), who teach the First-Year Experience course Gauging the Randolph-Macon Footprint: Steps Toward Environmental Sustainability. The course offers students the opportunity to explore their individual and collective “footprints”—the environmental impact of human activities on natural ecological systems—as they relate to R-MC’s campus. Throughout the year-long course, students have investigated the sources of R-MC’s eco-footprint and are developing a plan to reduce it, thereby assisting the college in developing a campus-wide environmental management system.
Thomashow is the president of Unity College in Maine and an author, educator, environmentalist, theoretician and philosopher who specializes in bridging the practices of ecology and spirituality. He is also a distinguished faculty member in the Antioch New England Department of Environmental Studies, where he spent most of his career. He was previously chair of the doctoral program in environmental studies and associate dean for institutional advancement at Antioch University New England. In addition, Thomashow helped to found the nationally acclaimed literary journal Whole Terrain: Journal of Reflective Environmental Practice, which explores ecological and social issues from the unique perspective of environmental practitioners.
Thomashow teaches Global Environmental Change, Ecological Thought, Cultures of Natural History and Music and Nature. As a college president, he aspires to integrate concepts of ecology, sustainability, natural history and community service into all aspects of college and community life.
Thomashow's book, Ecological Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist (The MIT Press, 1995), offers an approach to teaching environmental education based on reflective practice. His most recent book is Bringing the Biosphere Home: Learning to Perceive Global Environmental Change (The MIT Press, 2003), which shows how to make global environmental problems more tangible, so that they become an integral part of everyday awareness. Thomashow is currently in the initial stages of two writing projects: a book on the ecology of improvisation, linking music, play and sports, and patterns in nature, and a book of essays exploring how an environmental studies education promotes virtue.
In addition to his public lecture, Thomashow will present a lecture to the students enrolled in Gauging the Randolph-Macon Footprint: Steps Toward Environmental Sustainability.
For more information on Thomashow’s public lecture, contact Professor Reber Dunkel at ddunkel@rmc.edu or Professor Brian Moores at brianmoores@rmc.edu.