Who Are We

Hugh Bartling teaches in DePaul’s Public Policy Studies program.  His research interests are focused on urban environmental policy and climate change with a particular concentration on North American suburbia and the politics of urban planning.  He is the co-editor of “Suburban Sprawl: culture, theory, politics” and has published in a variety of journals including Urban Affairs Review, Planning Perspectives, Social Science Quarterly, and Space and Culture.  He can be found on the web at hughbartling.com

Rick Elmore is an instructor in the Department of Philosophy at DePaul University. He recently completed his PhD in philosophy at DePaul University.  His dissertation, entitled “Critical Ecologies: Violence and Life in the Work of Jacques Derrida and Theodor Adorno”, explores the way in which a concern for the violence involved in the determination of “life” grounds the critical projects of both these thinkers.  In particular, this project argues that Derrida’s and Adorno’s work revolves around a concern for the violent exclusion entailed in the determination of life qua life and the determination of who or what can be included in the community of those whose life can be an object of moral or ethical concern.  In addition to pursuing research in environmental philosophy, Rick is currently working on an essay addressing the relationship between object-oriented philosophy and deconstruction and was recently invited to write a commentary piece on Derrida’s The Postcard for an upcoming issue of the CUNY sponsored journal, Glossator: Theory and Practice of the Commentary.

Jim Fairhall teaches modern literature at DePaul University.  He has published award-winning works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and literary criticism.  His scholarly interests are focused on ecocriticism as it applies to the writing of James Joyce.

Kim Frye is an instructor in the Environmental Science & Studies Department at DePaul University. She is an enthusiast for urban green space in all its forms. She currently researches urban soils and street trees, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for data-rich maps. She is also very interested in the relationship between science theory and practice. Kim dug her first garden 20 years ago and currently maintains 4 gardens throughout Chicago; including a rooftop garden where she has most recently participated in growing corn and switchgrass for ethanol production and the construction of cold frames. She is a beginning banjo student, novice welder, and intermediate juggler.

Liam Heneghan, a Dubliner, is an ecosystem ecologist working at DePaul University in Chicago where he is a Professor of Environmental Science and co-director of DePaul University’s Institute for Nature and Culture. His research has included studies on the impact of acid rain on soil foodwebs in Europe, and on inter-biome comparisons of decomposition and nutrient dynamics in forested ecosystems in North American and in the tropics. Over the past decade Heneghan and his students have been working on restoration issues in Midwestern ecosystems. Heneghan is co-chair of the Chicago Wilderness Science Team. He is also a graduate student in DePaul University’s philosophy program and an occasional poet.

Randall Honold is an assistant dean and instructor of environmental studies and philosophy, and a founding member of the Institute for Nature and Culture, at DePaul University. Away from work, when not spending time with his family or bicycling, he is slowly compiling a portfolio of still photographs that confuse boundaries, scales, and dimensions. This is his first go at blogging.

Scott Kelley is Assistant Vice-President for Vincentian Scholarship in the Office of Mission and Values (mission.depaul.edu) and Assistant Professor in the Religious Studies Department at DePaul University. He is currently co-chair of the Sustainability Initiatives Task Force. As a research fellow for the Institute of Business and Professional Ethics, he co-authored a book titled Alleviating Poverty through Profitable Partnerships: Globalization, Markets, and Economic Well-Being. His areas of research and publication include for-profit contributions to the alleviation of global poverty, sustainability in Catholic higher education, Catholic social thought, and Vincentian heritage. He received a PhD in Theological Ethics from Loyola University Chicago. For a partial list of publications, please visit http://works.bepress.com/scott_kelley/

Patricia Monaghan is professor of interdisciplinary studies at the School for New Learning, DePaul University, and a Founding Fellow of the Black Earth Institute, a progressive think-tank for artists.  She is the author of more than 20 books on spirituality and mythology, as well as four books of poetry.

Christine Skolnik is an adjunct professor in DePaul’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric & Discourse and a faculty advisor to the Institute for Nature & Culture.  She holds a PhD in English (Rhetoric) from Penn State and is in the midst of earning an MA in Urban Sustainability.  She teaches courses in professional writing, rhetoric, and environmental consciousness.   Her research interests include the environment, rhetorical theory, psychology, and neuroscience.  (Rhetoric and the Plastic Brain is her original blog).  She is an avid downhill skier and currently renovating a condo on the outskirts of Vail with her husband Keith.

Anthony Paul Smith is an adjunct professor in the Departments of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Environmental Studies at DePaul University. He recently finished his PhD at the University of Nottingham in Philosophical Theology. His dissertation, entitled “Ecologies of Thought: Thinking Nature in Philosophy, Religion, and Ecology”, attempts to fashion a theory of nature out of a unified theory of philosophical theology and ecology. The method is that of Francois Laruelle’s “non-philosophy” which reworks the division of labor between philosophy and the other disciplines creating what he calls a “democracy of thought”. In addition to ecological philosophy he has also published numerous articles on the philosophy of religion and is the translator of Laruelle’s “Future Christ: A Lesson in Heresy” and co-translator of the forthcoming “Principles of Non-Philosophy”.

Lauren Umek is a project coordinator for DePaul’s Department of Environmental Science and a PhD student in Plant Biology and Conservation with Northwestern University and The Chicago Botanic Garden where she studies the impacts of plant invasion and restoration on soils and plant communities. She is currently investigating the use of soil manipulations in restoring invaded ecosystems and manages the Chicago Wilderness Land Management Research Program.  Lauren is a vegetarian, half marathoner, scooter rider, amateur gardener, and dedicated city-dweller.

Barbara Willard holds a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Environmental Science and Studies and the College of Communication at DePaul University.  She is a founding member of the Institute for Nature and Culture and is currently on its Executive Council.  Her research focuses on ways to foster sustainable practices beyond the environmental “choir.”    Most recently her research specializes in community food systems, urban agriculture, and promoting locally grown, fresh produce in food deserts.  She is a vegan, an avid animal lover, loves organic gardening and farming in challenging places like vacant city lots and parkways, and loves the Appalachian Mountains.  She believes that the best place to find the nexus of nature and culture and to live sustainably is in large cities like Chicago, where she resides.