On Tuesday, April 11 at 10:30 AM via Zoom, Professor Bron Taylor, one of the world’s foremost experts on spirituality and environmental justice, honored us with an impactful, engaging, and moving discussion on “Spirituality, Environmental Movements, and Radical Politics.”
Bron Taylor is Professor of Religion, Nature and Environmental Ethics at The University of Florida, a Fellow of the Rachel Carson Center (at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munchen). An interdisciplinary environmental studies scholar, Taylor’s research and teaching engages the quest for environmentally sustainable and more equitable societies.
Professor Taylor’s central scholarly interest and personal passion is the conservation of the earth’s biological diversity and how human cultures might evolve rapidly enough to arrest and reverse today’s intensifying environmental and social crises. His recent efforts include as a contributing author to the United Nations’ Convention on Biodiversity’s Value Assessment that is being orchestrated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and will be published in 2022.
Taylor earned his Ph.D. in Social and Religious Ethics from the University of Southern California, has taught at California State University, Long Beach, The University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, The University of Florida, the University of Colorado, and the University of Bergen (Norway). His books include Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (2010), Ecological Resistance Movements: the Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism (1995), and Affirmative Action at Work: Law, Politics and Ethics (1992). He has presented approximately 100 invited and keynote lectures in 18 countries outside of the United States. He has also been interviewed on a number of National television programs, for documentary films, and for dozens of radio programs and podcasts in several countries.
An academic entrepreneur and program builder, Professor Taylor led the initiative to create an academic major in Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, later initiated and was elected president of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, while also founding its affiliated journal and becoming its editor. Appointed as the Samuel S. Hill Ethics Professor at the University of Florida in 2002, he played a leading role in constructing the world’s first Ph.D. program with an emphasis on Religion and Nature. In 2016 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture.