Conference Format Lawrence Buell Literature as Environmentalist Thought

Conference Format • Lawrence Buell – Literature as Environmental(ist) Thought Experiment? • Donald Worster – Nature, Liberty, and Equality • Mary Evelyn Tucker – Touching the Depth of Things: Cultivating Nature in East Asia • Michael D. Jackson – A Walk on the Wild Side: The Idea of Nature Revisited • Bron Taylor – From the Ground Up: Growing a Green Future for Religion and Ethics • Michael Zimmerman – Interiority Regained: Integral Ecology and Environmental Ethics • Panel Discussion

Lawrence Buell Literature as Environmental(ist) Thought Experiment? • How does literature play in to society’s perception of the environment? • What are common misconceptions? • The Jungle misinterpretation • Silent Spring

Donald Worster Nature, Liberty, and Equality • How does the degradation of our environment affect our liberal democracy? • Good examples include: – Greenbelt Movement – Huxley’s Brave New World

Mary Evelyn Tucker Touching the Depth of Things: Cultivating Nature in East Asia • Where does monism fit in a discussion dominated by dualism • Separation of mind and body

Michael D. Jackson A Walk on the Wide Side: The Idea of Nature Revisited • Sustainability and globalization, are they the greatest struggles facing all culture?

Bron Taylor From the Ground Up: Growing a Green Future for Religion and Ethics • Can there be a world religion revolved around the environment? • Homogenization or polarization?

Michael Zimmerman Interiority Regained: Integral Ecology and Environmental Ethics • What deeper force has caused our culture to turn a cold shoulder to ethics and the environment?

Experience Gained • The environmental ethics is a complex issue that is difficult to define. As seen through the panelists, definitions change between cultures and religions http: //www. hds. harvard. edu/cswr/events_online. html