Land Use and Community/Individual Priorities Are Symposium Focus

05/01/2012

Balancing individual and community priorities with land use is the focus of the first symposium of Interdisciplinary Scholarship in Land Use and Ethics held by ESF's Northern Forest Institute. The event will be held June 1 through 3 at Huntington Wildlife Forest at ESF's Newcomb campus.

The symposium will highlight research from across professions and disciplines on topics related to balancing individual and community priorities with respect to land use, and the associated expectations for human and ecosystem stewardship and social and environmental ethics.

Bill Vitek, professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, is the keynote speaker. His research focuses on the substantial cultural and social changes that will be necessary for humans to live without easy access to cheap, carbon-based energy in the form of soils, forests, oil, natural gas and coal.

Symposium organizers hope to generate conversation around a variety of approaches to land use and the moral implications of these approaches, as well as the ways they influence the ongoing debate over how to achieve social and environmental justice. New and in-process work from a range of disciplines and professional fields will be represented and integrated into the symposium discourse.

For complete event details and registration information, visit www.esf.edu/nfi/symposium/.