Feb
5
3:00 PM15:00

"The Nature-Study Idea": NYU Student Seminar with David W. Orr and John Linstrom

This seminar has reached capacity, but you can still join the waitlist below.

Ahead of the launch of their historic new edition of the ecological classic The Nature-Study Idea and Related Writings by Liberty Hyde Bailey (details/RSVP for the evening launch event here), foreword author David W. Orr and editor John Linstrom will host a special seminar discussion for NYU students to discuss the history and current trajectory of ecological education and its relevance to the twin crises of climate change and challenges to democracy.

Space in this seminar is limited, and registration is required. A suggested reading from the open-access digital edition of the book will be distributed to participants ahead of the seminar. In the event of over-enrollment, priority may be given to graduate students and to students enrolled in programs related to environmental studies/humanities, education, history, and literary studies, but all NYU students are welcome and encouraged to register.

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus and senior advisor to the president of Oberlin College. He is the editor, most recently, of Democracy in a Hotter Time: Climate Change and Democratic Transformation. He is the author of eight books and of over 200 articles, reviews, book chapters, and professional publications.

John Linstrom is the Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow of Climate and Inequality at the Climate Museum, having completed his PhD in English and American Literature at NYU in 2021. He is the series editor of The Liberty Hyde Bailey Library for Cornell University Press and coedited The Liberty Hyde Bailey Gardener's Companion (Cornell UP, 2019).

  • In The Nature-Study Idea, Liberty Hyde Bailey articulated the essence of a social movement, led by ordinary public-school teachers, that lifted education out of the classroom and placed it into firsthand contact with the natural world. The aim was simple but revolutionary: sympathy with nature to increase the joy of living and foster stewardship of the earth.

    This definitive edition reintroduces The Nature-Study Idea as an environmental classic for our time. It provides historical context through a wealth of related writings, and introductory essays relate Bailey's vision to current work in education and the intersection of climate change and culture. In this period of planetary turmoil, Bailey's ambition to cultivate wonder (in adults as well as children) and lead readers back into the natural world is more important than ever.

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