Interpreting Nature: The Emerging Field of Environmental Hermeneutics

Contributors

373 Nathan M. Bell is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University of North Texas. His main research interest is the application of hermeneutics to environmental philosophy, with further interests in eco-phenomenology, environmental justice, and literature and the environment. He has presented extensively on various aspects of hermeneutic application to environmental thought and is the author of one of the first graduate theses on environmental hermeneutics (MA from the University of North Texas). John van Buren is professor of philosophy and director of environmental policy at Fordham University. He is the author of The Young Heidegger: Rumor of the Hidden King (Indiana University Press, 1994), editor of Reading Heidegger from the Start: Essays in His Earliest Thought (SUNY Press, 1994), Heidegger’s 1923 lecture course Ontology—The Hermeneutics of Facticity (Indiana University Press, 1999), and the Heidegger anthology Supplements—From the Earliest Essays to Being and Time and Beyond (SUNY Press, 2002). Scott Cameron is a Canadian born on the prairies and raised in Northern Ontario. He left Queen’s University to counsel alcoholic youth in Thunder Bay before pursing his PhD at Fordham University among the workaholics of New York City. When that ended, he took a one-year post at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where he continues to teach and do research in his eighteenth year. While his early work tied hermeneutics to critical theory, a sabbatical allowed him to develop his current interest: using hermeneutical tools to resolve long-standing perplexities in environmental philosophy. Forrest Clingerman is associate professor of philosophy and religion at Ohio Northern University. Along with Mark H. Dixon, he is coeditor of Placing Contributors 374 Contributors Nature on the Borders of Philosophy, Religion, and Ethics (Ashgate, 2011). In addition, he has published a number of articles on environmental thought. His main research focus is on issues of place in environmental philosophy and theology, but he has also written on topics of pedagogy in higher education. Janet Donohoe is professor of philosophy at the University of West Georgia. She is the author of Husserl on Ethics and Intersubjectivity: From Static to Genetic Phenomenology (Humanity Books, 2004) as well as many articles ranging from feminist phenomenology to Heidegger and Benjamin to interpretations of the place of home. Her current research is grounded in phenomenology, using that method as an approach to issues of collective memory and the built environment with a focus on monuments. Martin Drenthen is associate professor of philosophy at Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands). Together with Jozef Keulartz and Jim Proctor, he coedited New Visions of Nature: Complexity and Authenticity (Springer, 2009). In English and Dutch publications, he has written about the significance of Nietzsche’s critique of morality for environmental ethics, the concept of wildness in debates on ecological restoration, and ethics of place. His most recent research focuses on the relationship between landscapes, cultures of place, and moral identity. Christina M. Gschwandtner is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Scranton. She holds a PhD in French phenomenology from DePaul University (Chicago) and a PhD in ecological theology from the University of Durham (Durham, UK). She has published in the areas of religious phenomenology and hermeneutics. She is author of Reading Jean-Luc Marion: Exceeding Metaphysics (Indiana University Press, 2007). Her most recent book is titled Postmodern Apologetics? (Fordham University Press, 2012). Sean J. McGrath researches in the areas of phenomenology, hermeneutics, metaphysics, and the history of ideas. The author of several works on German philosophy, including The Early Heidegger and Medieval Philosophy: Phenomenology for the Godforsaken (Catholic University of America, 2006) and The Dark Ground of Spirit: Schelling and the Unconscious (Routledge, 2012), he has been teaching environmental philosophy for many years. Robert Mugerauer is professor and dean emeritus in the Departments of Architecture, Urban Design and Planning, and adjunct in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. He first advocated an environmental hermeneutics with “Language and the Emergence of Environment” in Dwelling, Place, Environment (1985), then followed with Interpretations on Behalf of Place (SUNY Press, 1994) and Interpreting Environments (University of Texas Press, 1995). His current research applies continental thought and dynamic complexity to biocultural environments and issues of Contributors 375 well-being. Recent publications include Heidegger and Homecoming (University of Toronto, 2008) and Environmental Dilemmas (with Lynne Manzo; Lexington Books, 2008). Mick Smith is associate professor and Queen’s National Scholar at Queen...