PEI Welcomes Three Visiting Faculty Members and One Visiting Research Scholar
The Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) maintains a vibrant visiting fellows program in environmental research. The program recruits outstanding academic scholars with relevant expertise to Princeton with opportunities to contribute to PEI’s research and teaching programs.
This fall, PEI is pleased to welcome three visiting faculty members and one visiting research scholar: three of whom are working at the intersection of the environment and humanities and one in the field of environmental economics.
Ken Hiltner (Visiting Professor of English and the Princeton Environmental Institute Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities; September 2012 – June 2013). Hiltner is a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has served as director of the Early Modern Center, director of Graduate Studies, and director of the Literature and the Environment Center. He is the author of five books, which include “Milton and Ecology” (Cambridge UP, 2003; paperback 2009), “What Else is Pastoral?” (Cornell UP, 2011), and “Essential Ecocriticism” (Routledge, Forthcoming), as well as numerous articles. All of the books and most of the articles explore the ideological underpinnings of our current environmental crisis. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he garnered a number of distinctions, including the Bowdoin Prize. Prior to his academic career, he made his living as a furniture maker. As a second-generation woodworker, he received commissions from five continents and had collections featured in major metropolitan galleries.
Milind Kandlikar (Visiting Research Scholar, Research Community on Communicating Uncertainty: Science, Institutions, and Ethics in the Politics of Global Change/Reed Visiting Environmental Economist; September 2012 – June 2013). Kandlikar is a professor with the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, and the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on the intersection of technology innovation, human development, and the global environment. Kandlikar’s current research examines the co-impacts of improved air quality and climate change mitigation from air pollution reductions, scientific capacity at the climate change science/policy interface in developing countries, and the risks and regulation of emerging bio and nanotechnologies. Other ongoing projects include the determinants of the diffusion of solar lighting systems in India, lifecycle energy impacts of information technologies, and the implications of India’s use of Universal Identification technologies on the delivery of social services to the poor. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and has also published extensively on the science and policy of climate change.
Mary Evelyn Tucker (Visiting Lecturer in Religion and the Princeton Environmental Institute as a Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities; September 2012 – January 2013). Tucker is a senior lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. Tucker is also research associate at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard. In 2011, she completed the Journey of the Universe with Brian Swimme, which includes a book from Yale University Press, a film on PBS, and an educational series of interviews. She is also the author of numerous publications including “Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase” (Open Court Press, 2003), “Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism” (SUNY, 1989), and “The Philosophy of Qi” (Columbia University Press, 2007). She is a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Earth Charter International Council. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.
John Grim (Visiting Lecturer in Religion and the Princeton Environmental Institute as a Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities; September 2012 – January 2013). Grim is a senior lecturer and senior research scholar at Yale University teaching courses that draw students from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and the Yale Colleges. He is coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology with Mary Evelyn Tucker, and series editor of “World Religions and Ecology,” from Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions (Harvard, 2001). He has been a Professor of Religion at Bucknell University, and at Sarah Lawrence College where he taught courses in Native American and Indigenous religions, World Religions, and Religion and Ecology. His published works include “The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians” (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) and edited a volume with Mary Evelyn Tucker entitled “Worldviews and Ecology” (Orbis, 1994, 5th printing 2000), and a Daedalus volume (2001) entitled, “Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?” Grim is also President of the American Teilhard Association and received his Ph.D. from Fordham University.