AESS in Portland

The Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS) conference in Portland, Oregon has gone exceptionally well. The conference brought together scholars representing a number of different disciplines. I was fortunate to present papers on two panels yesterday (Saturday, June 20) that were quite diverse. The theme of the first panel was concerned with "new directions" in environmental studies and sciences. My paper served to introduce the idea of environmental hermeneutics and was well received.

In the afternoon I was on a panel that, once again, was concerned with "new directions," only this time the theme was specific to environmental justice. I spoke to the question of the narrative environmental identities of communities on the receiving end of environmental injustices and how narrative is a crucial tool for environmental justice activists who advocate on the behalf of these communities. The paper was the only philosophy paper on the panel and appeared to go by without much fanfare. In the Q&A, however, all the questions and discussion, regardless of which panelist these were directed to, kept coming back to the issue of narrative. In the end, communal narrative identities seemed to be one cohering element to the presentations. The session chair humorously concluded the panel with the words. "Paul Ricoeur wins."