A Fierce Green Fire at 100: Aldo Leopold and the Roots of Environmental Ethics

FAIN: EH-50172-08

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85281-3670)
Dan Shilling (Project Director: March 2008 to June 2011)

A four-week institute for twenty-five college and university faculty on the environmental ethics of Aldo Leopold.

2009 marks the 100th anniversary of Aldo Leopold's arrival in the Southwest. Leopold died a year before A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC was published in 1949. He might be surprised to learn that the book helped create the discipline of environmental ethics and is now taught in humanities courses, including literature, history, and philosophy. This institute builds on the centennial year and the book's multidisciplinary structure. "A Fierce Green Fire at 100," held in Prescott AZ, brings together five of the nation's most respected Leopold scholars, guest faculty, and field trips to sites with thematic significance. Participants will explore the historical and philosophical sources of Leopold's ideas, generate new research that places Leopold's work in intellectual history, and develop projects that enhance their own research and teaching. To do so, the book's place within the larger field of environmental ethics will be considered from a variety of perspectives.