I consider professional and community service to be an important part of my work. My primary professional affiliation is with the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, but I have also been active in the American Society for Environmental History. I have also served on the editorial boards of a number of journals and book series about the environment, reviewed manuscripts for a variety of academic and trade publishers, and spoken to a wide range of community groups.
Leadership
Co-organizer, Environmental Humanities Initiative, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017-
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of English, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2012-2020
President, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, 2009
Public Relations Officer, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, 1995-2007
Director, Program in Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Ethics, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2001-07
Editorial Boards
Regeneration: Environment, Art, Culture (Open Library of the Humanities), Editorial Board, 2023-
Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities (University of Nebraska Press), Editorial Board, 2015-23
ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (Reno, Nev.: University of Nevada Press), Editorial Advisory Board, 1998-2020
Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology (Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Law School), Faculty Associate Editor, 2006-13; Faculty Editorial Advisory Board, 2004-06, 2014-15
Quadrant Program in Environment, Culture, and Sustainability (Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press), 2008-13
Sources: Notable Selections in Environmental Studies, ed. Thomas Easton (Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill Contemporary Learning Series), Advisory Board, 2007-13
Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing (Logan, Utah: Utah State University), Editorial Advisory Board, 2005-10
Environmental Communication Yearbook (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), Editorial Board, 2004-07
Center Books on Space, Place, and Time (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), Consulting Editor, 1996-99
Conferences Organized
"Energy: An Environmental Humanities Symposium," Environmental Humanities Initiative and Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 14 March 2019
"Transforming Environments in Europe and North America: Narratives, Histories, Cultures," Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 18-29 June 2018
"Consuming the World: Eating and Drinking in Culture, History, and Environment," Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany, 11-12 March 2016
"Island Time: The Fate of Place in a Wired, Warming World," Eighth Biennial Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, University of Victoria, BC, 2-6 June 2009
"What's for Dinner? The Ethics and Aesthetics of Eating," Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, Minn., 19 April 2007
"Making Ethics Visible," Second Midwest Environmental Ethics Conference, St. Paul, Minn., 6 May 2006
"Landscapes in Environmental History," American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society Joint Annual Meeting, Radisson Riverfront Hotel, St. Paul, Minn., March 29 - April 1, 2006
Memberships
With participants in the Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute, 2018
Using the tools of the humanities to interpret and address environmental problems.