Philosophy & Religion

Website: http://philrel.appstate.edu

Connection to Sustainability: Philosophy - Critically interrogates prevailing values, beliefs and habits of living; Philosophy incorporates environmental justice, economic justice and social justice; Religion - religion as both a stabilizing force for some groups and a destabilizing or revolutionary force for other groups. Religion works in both ways and can promote the sustainability of a culture, a political system, or the environment; Understanding how people identify with their environment through religious and dietary practices; Religion deals with the histories and preservation of cultures.

Teaching: Environmental Ethics; Feminist Philosophy; Philosophy of Race; Social and Political Philosophy; Contemporary Continental Philosophy; Ethical Theory; Animal Philosophy and Ethics; Hinduism; Buddhism; Religion in America; Religions of the World; Religion and Imaginary Worlds; Religion and Violence.

Research: Sustaining human culture through studying change and continuity; Studying communitarian and utopian groups that practice simplicity and purposeful sustainable practice; Religion and infectious disease ecologies and implications for the sustainability of the human population.

Student Engagement and Outreach Activities: Former student started a local ministry that cares for the poor; student projects related to the practice of living with a small footprint.