'Why African Americans Care about the Environment' Feb. 8

Story posted February 01, 2010

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Kimberly Smith, associate professor of political science and environmental studies at Carleton College, will give the talk "Why African Americans Care about the Environment" at 4:30 p.m. Monday, February 8, 2010, in the Russwurm African American Center, 2nd floor.

The environmental justice movement has challenged the conventional wisdom that African Americans "just don't care" about the environment. In fact, the philosophy of the Environmental Justice (EJ) movement has deep roots in African American political thought.

Since the abolition movement, African American activists and intellectuals have been examining the connection between racial oppression and environmental degradation. Smith's talk will summarize some of the key findings from her study of African American environmental thought from 1860 to 1930. Focusing on the canonical African American writers, Smith argues that this intellectual tradition includes a rich body of environmental thought centered on how racial oppression leads to poor stewardship, by distorting the incentives to take care of the land and by making it difficult for the oppressed (and the oppressors) to achieve an emotional connection to the landscape.

Kimberly Smith teaches courses in political theory, constitutional law, environmental ethics and environmental politics. She earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan, and a law degree from the Boalt School of Law at the University of California–Berkeley. She has held the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professorship in the Environment and Humanities, along with an appointment as visiting professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. In 2009, she was appointed to the editorial board of Environmental Ethics and is currently serving as president of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Smith's research centers on intellectual history and philosophy, particularly the history of American environmental thought, environmental political theory and environmental ethics. Her first book, The Dominion of Voice: Riot, Reason and Romance in Antebellum Politics (University Press of Kansas, 1999) was awarded the 2001 Merle Curtis Intellectual History Award by the Organization of American Historians. Her third book, African American Environmental Thought: Foundations was published by University Press of Kansas in Spring 2007 and named "Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice Magazine in 2008.

Smith's Bowdoin talk is sponsored by the departments of Government, English, and History, the African American Society, and the Africana Studies and Environmental Studies programs.

For more information call 725-3396.

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