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Finding Purpose in the Conservation of Biodiversity by the Commingling of Science and Ethics

John a vucetich, ewan a macdonald, dawn burnham, jeremy t bruskotter, dominic d p johnson, david w macdonald.

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Correspondence: [email protected]

Received 2021 Mar 1; Accepted 2021 Mar 12; Collection date 2021 Mar.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

Simple Summary

The biodiversity crisis, involving declines, even extinction, of many species, threatens the well-being and livelihoods of many people directly, and everybody indirectly, through a combination of its impacts on the functioning of ecosystems, availability of natural resources, and human values. Although conservation science itself is a trans-disciplinary blend of natural and social sciences, crucially it offers technical solutions to avert this crisis, thereby shedding light on the question of “what can we do?”; those answers inevitably raise the question “what ought we do?” and, again crucially, the answers must be sought in ethics. In this paper, therefore, we attempt the holistic commingling of sciences and ethics that is essential for individuals and societies to decide what to do about the biodiversity crisis. We identify several alternative ways forward, because there are several different ethical frameworks to guide the judgments that lie between evidence and action. Two of these are more familiar, deontology and consequentialism, whereas a third, virtue ethics, less familiar to many, might have great contemporary relevance. We explain all three, and show how each can guide modern citizens to a framework for thinking, without which a societal solution to the biodiversity crisis—ultimately the biggest crisis facing humanity—is impossible.

Averting the biodiversity crisis requires closing a gap between how humans tend to behave, individually and collectively, and how we ought to behave—“ought to” in the sense of behaviors required to avert the biodiversity crisis. Closing that gap requires synthesizing insight from ethics with insights from social and behavioral sciences. This article contributes to that synthesis, which presents in several provocative hypotheses: (i) Lessening the biodiversity crisis requires promoting pro-conservation behavior among humans. Doing so requires better scientific understanding of how one’s sense of purpose in life affects conservation-relevant behaviors. Psychology and virtue-focused ethics indicate that behavior is importantly influenced by one’s purpose. However, conservation psychology has neglected inquiries on (a) the influence of one’s purpose (both the content and strength of one’s purpose) on conservation-related behaviors and (b) how to foster pro-conservation purposes; (ii) lessening the biodiversity crisis requires governance—the regulation of behavior by governments, markets or other organization through various means, including laws, norms, and power—to explicitly take conservation as one of its fundamental purposes and to do so across scales of human behaviors, from local communities to nations and corporations; (iii) lessening the biodiversity crisis requires intervention via governance to nudge human behavior in line with the purpose of conservation without undue infringement on other basic values. Aligning human behavior with conservation is inhibited by the underlying purpose of conservation being underspecified. Adequate specification of conservation’s purpose will require additional interdisciplinary research involving insights from ethics, social and behavioral sciences, and conservation biology.

Keywords: conservation psychology, governance, purpose, sustainability, values, virtue ethics

1. Introduction

Of the approximately 40,000 species of vertebrates known to inhabit the planet, approximately 20% are believed to be threatened with extinction [ 1 ]. Furthermore, human enterprises are believed to have increased the rate of species extinction by three orders of magnitude [ 2 ]. Circumstances are also grim for many of the species that will escape total extinction. For example, among the studied species of terrestrial mammals, the average species has been extirpated from two-thirds of its former geographic range [ 3 ]. Consequently, large portions of the earth’s terrestrial surface have lost more than half of their native species in historic times. Those losses represent a threat to ecosystem health. Causes of these losses include: habitat destruction and degradation (e.g., pollution), over-exploitation, introduction of non-native species, and deterioration of basic ecological relationships, especially predator–prey relationships [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].

Consider just the class of animals to which humans belong, Mammalia, over a fifth of which are currently threatened, a tally which might rise to 36% if those classified as data deficient turn out to be threatened [ 1 ]. As reviewed in Macdonald [ 7 ], of extant mammals, perissodactyles, primates, and elephants are the most threatened, with 75% of 16 species, 61% of 435 species, and 100% of two species listed as threatened, respectively. About 60% of the 74 largest terrestrial herbivores are threatened [ 8 ]. Of just one especially charismatic order, the Carnivora, about one quarter (26.4%, 78 species) are threatened, including 61% of the 31 largest species [ 9 ]. Drilling down further to just one family, the Felidae, at least 26 of 45 species are threatened or nearly so, and Sandom et al. [ 10 ] paint vividly the picture of how their disappearing prey, largely due to people, pulls the ecological rug from beneath their feet. Anyone doubting either the gravity of the extinction crisis, or the relevance to it of how people consider they ought to behave to nature, need look no further. So much for generalisations. Understanding often lurks in the detailed behaviour of individual non-humans [ 11 ] or the attitudes of individual humans (e.g., [ 12 ] and it is at that intersection that the purpose of conservation resides.

While the biodiversity crisis is very much about the relationship between humans and other animals, stemming the biodiversity crisis requires knowledge and insight from beyond the fields of zoology and animal ecology. As such biodiversity conservation has long been recognized as a transdisciplinary endeavor that includes increasing attention on the human dimensions of conservation—which includes social and behavioral science, politics, policy, economics, and ethics. Unbridged disciplinary divides exist not only between ecology and the human dimensions, but also within the human dimensions of conservation. The deepest divide in academia—between the sciences and the humanities—is represented in conservation by the chasm between conservation ethics [ 13 ] and conservation psychology [ 14 ]. This divide is easy to overlook because both disciplines share a basic interest in human behavior. This commentary addresses the challenges of synthesizing domains of knowledge from conservation ethics and psychology in efforts to address conservation problems.

2. Synthesizing Two Disciplines

Ethics is the academic field that aims to understand how humans ought to behave. The social and behavioral sciences aim to understand how humans actually behave and why. The distinction is sometimes represented informally by ethics’ concern with “ought” and sciences’ concern for “is” [ 15 ]. Conservation ethics, more precisely, aims to understand how we ought to relate to nature, who in the non-human world ought to be treated with moral consideration [ 16 ], and what the goal of conservation ought to be [ 17 , 18 ]. When the social and behavioral sciences are applied to conservation the focus is often on understanding why some people exhibit more pro-conservation behaviors than others [ 19 ].

Those disciplinary distinctions indicate a cardinal challenge of conservation. That is, to close the gap between is and ought. Drawing sharp attention to the gap between is and ought is salient because the importance and difficulty of minding that gap is routinely overlooked in conservation [ 20 ]. Some attempt to close the gap by disputing the distinction between is and ought and endeavoring to demonstrate that ethics can be subsumed by science [ 21 ]. Here, we offer an alternative approach to synthesizing principles from conservation ethics and conservation science—especially the behavioral and social sciences. The framework for this synthesis is governance by which we mean the regulation of behavior (of individuals and groups) by governments, markets, or other organization through various means, including laws, norms, and power [ 22 ]. Governance can include public policy and we use the term broadly enough for it to encompass, for example, management of a corporation or large NGO.

An important line of inquiry focuses on technical means of governing for the promotion of some social good, such as conservation (e.g., [ 23 ]). The line of inquiry we raise here stands beside that concern. Governance is inescapably an integration of empirical and normative elements. A simple example illustrates: Driving faster leads to more road deaths (empirical claim); we should set speed limits to 100 km/h (normative claim); driving faster than 100 km/h will result in a fine of some amount of money (governance). That example, beguilingly, skips past a venerable challenge of governance—that is, how to appropriately integrate the normative and empirical dimensions of governance [ 24 ]. The challenge is as old as governance itself. The challenge is also nearly intractable when expressed in such broad terms. A critical strategy for meeting this challenge is to narrow the scope. We narrow the scope by focusing on how ethics and (behavioral) science might be synthesized to guide governance as it pertains to conservation. One result of doing so is to reveal how conservation is impaired by an underdetermined and unresolved sense for the basic purpose of conservation. For emphasis and perhaps surprisingly to those less familiar with conservation, there are deep divisions within the community of conservation professionals about the underlying purpose of conservation [ 25 ]. Before tending that concern, we build a framework for synthesis by reviewing salient principles of ethics and behavioral science.

3. Ethics, Virtue, and Purpose

Academic ethics is comprised of three major frameworks: utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics ( Appendix A ). Utilitarianism emphasizes that the rightness of an action is judged by the goodness of the consequences of the action, in particular actions with the greatest utility. Deontology emphasizes that the rightness of an action is judged by adherence to rules that stem from understanding duties and obligations owed to others. By contrast, virtue ethics emphasizes judgments about how a person is motivated to practice certain virtues and how well they practice those virtues. Below, we will focus on virtue ethics because, as we will see, it has deep connection to some basic principles of psychology. Interest in virtue ethics by applied ethicists has also been rejuvenated in recent decades—after centuries of relative neglect [ 26 ]. Being the least explored framework in modern times, virtue ethics may be fertile ground for conservation.

The roots of virtue ethics trace to Aristotle, who wrote that the purpose of a human life was to realize eudemonia—a word that while not readily translated into English, refers to a kind of human flourishing, a rich sense of happiness that transcends hedonism. Aristotle also believed this purpose in life would be realized in becoming increasingly proficient (wise) in the practice of certain virtues. For Aristotle, these virtues are represented by the Golden Mean [ 27 ]. The idea is exemplified by the virtue of being thrifty—a balance between two vices, greediness and wastefulness.

Of particular importance is the basic architecture of virtue ethics, which include the identification of a purpose in life—by which we refer to both lived purposes of real people and aspirational purposes that might be proffered philosophically. Virtues that would aid in realizing that purpose are subsequently identified and practiced. The proficient practicing of those virtues brings about the behavior required to realize the purpose. The architecture may be expressed diagrammatically: purpose(s) in life → virtues → behavior .

This architecture is emphasized by MacIntyre [ 26 ], which also develops an influential historical account of virtue ethics. Succinctly, the account runs roughly this way: Analysis of Homeric literature suggests that an important purpose in life was to become a heroic warrior. Accordingly, virtues that would serve such a purpose might include: bravery, cunningness, and perhaps even deceit. A different group, living in a different time or place, might acknowledge different purpose(s) and subsequently aspire to different virtues. According to MacIntyre [ 26 ], an important purpose in life for those living in ancient Greek city-states was to be a good citizen, suggesting the appropriateness of virtues, such as honesty, magnanimity, and forbearance. With the rise of Christianity and the intellectual contributions of St. Augustine, the purpose of life is taken to be moving from the “City of Man” to the “City of God”. The virtues most useful in realizing that purpose would include faith, hope, and charity.

With the dawn of The Enlightenment, God became an unsatisfying foundation for ethics. Immanuel Kant offered one of the first significant alternative footings for ethics (though he believed in God). Kant believed that ethics could be determined from pure reason alone. The next hundred years or so included numerous attempts to offer alternative footings. Hume believed that emotion and feeling, along with reason, is the foundation upon which to judge what is ethical. Kant and Hume revealed the shortcoming of each other’s view. Kierkegaard’s reaction was to claim that each human should be free to decide whether the foundation for judging right and wrong is to be reason or aesthetics (which corresponds very roughly to emotionality and egoism). Nietzsche took the failures of Hume and Kant to conclude that personal strength and will are the only sensible basis for deciding how to behave. Bentham and Mills believed the best foundation for ethics—in a world where the authority of God and monarch are second to the authority of human interests (secularism)—is to judge the rightness of an action by the goodness of the consequences of the action, in particular actions with the greatest utility.

While this account of virtue ethics emphasizes western culture, others have demonstrated commensurability between western notions of virtue ethics and ideas from Buddhism [ 28 ], Hinduism [ 29 ], and Confucianism [ 30 ].

An especially important feature of the preceding summary is its emphasis on the identification of purpose(s) in life which vary—for better or worse—among cultures living in different times and places. Yet, while purpose is fundamentally and inescapabilty normative, the development of a “good” purpose is not arbitrary insomuch as it should not be untethered from the most basic principles of reason and science—especially ecological science and behavioral sciences.

4. Behavioral Science and Values

Virtue is commensurate with psychologists’ notion of value ( Appendix B ), or what some psychologists refer to as transcendental values (TVs) to distinguish the concept from other concepts that use the word “value”, such as economic value or intrinsic value [ 31 ]. An important research program in psychology has been the identification of specific TVs and the prediction of behaviors from those values. A consistent finding of this research is that TVs are relatively few in number and appear to be held in common across diverse human cultures [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. An important and representative taxonomy of TVs is the theory of basic human values (TBHV) [ 36 ], which includes 10 values oriented along two primary axes ( Figure 1 ).

The theory of basic human values (TBHV) is a two-tier taxonomy, represented by the circle of 10 values arranged along two axes (transcendent–enhancement and openness–aversion). The values in this theory can be mapped onto the values of other theories, such as the moral foundations theory (MFT), which is represented by the blue boxes, which are located to indicated how the value categories of MFT correspond to the transcendent and aversion ends of the two poles in TBHV. See text for details. Adapted from Boer and Fischer [ 44 ].

The usefulness of this taxonomy has been demonstrated in studies of more than 75 different cultures using two well-developed survey instruments [ 36 , 37 ]. While the taxonomies of particular research programs differ, they typically share important similarities and are sometimes viewed as one taxonomy being mappable onto another. For example, the two primary axes of Schwartz’s taxonomy correspond to the five dimensions of moral foundations theory (MFT, [ 33 ], Figure 1 ).

Within the taxonomy of TBHVs ( Figure 1 ), one might think the challenge for conservation is to figure out how to encourage humans to better manifest values that are self-transcendent, like caring, and avoid values of self-enhancement, like power. Indeed, psychological research shows that power in this taxonomy tends to be negatively associated with pro-environmental attitudes [ 38 ]: Power seems to underlie many conservation problems and caring more could lead to improvements in conservation. Yet, some humans who actively oppose, let us say, the conservation of carnivores may still be especially caring (toward their family and friends). Similarly, some leaders of environmental NGOs are very power-hungry, yet do much for endangered habitats and species. In other words, any particular virtue can—often enough—serve wildly different purposes.

Among conservation psychologists, the effort to predict behaviors from TVs has been framed by efforts to account for processes that mediate the relationship between TVs and behaviors ( Figure 2 ). One important way to conceptualize these mediating processes is through a hierarchy of cognition, whereby transcendental values are more basic (i.e., more general and more stable over time), and other types of cognitions (e.g., attitudes, intentions) are more context specific and malleable ([ 39 , 40 , 41 ], Model B in Figure 2 ). The basic insight to emerge from these models of behavior is that subjects who tend to express self-transcendence values (see Figure 1 ) also tend to exhibit positive attitudes about the environment and those tending to express self-enhancement (power) values tend to express negative attitudes about the environment [ 42 , 43 ]. These associations are not universal nor do they tend to be especially strong [ 44 , 45 ].

Some models used in conservation psychology to understand behavior. Many, though not all, such efforts make explicit use of transcendental values (or means-oriented values, Figure 1 ). Transcendental value is commensurable with the concept, virtue, as used in academic ethics. Model (A) can be depicted with additional mediating steps, i.e., values → value orientations → attitudes & norms → behavioral intentions → behaviors . The explanatory power of models in conservation psychology may well be extended by taking account of the purpose(s) in life to which one ascribes. In other words, ends-oriented values may be more important than generally appreciated. The important of purpose is highlighted by virtue ethics (see Section 3 ). For a more detailed review of these models, see Klöckner [ 45 ].

The tendency to not find strong associations amongst TVs, environmental attitudes, and environmentally relevant behaviors is thought to be explained, in part, by the importance and diversity of mediating factors. For example, values tend to be better reflected in behaviors when the value is salient (or activated in memory) at the time of the behavior and understood to be relevant to the behavior in question [ 46 ]. To illustrate, a person is more likely to choose an environmentally friendly product (over a less environmentally friendly product, but otherwise comparable) if they had been thinking about environmental issues just prior to the purchase and informed about how the purchase might affect the environment [ 47 ]. Activation of a value can also lead to a person seeking out relevant information that would influence a decision [ 48 ].

Other factors that might mediate the connection between behavior and TV are circumstances that make it difficult to exhibit pro-environmental behavior. For example, one might have a predilection to exhibit pro-conservation behavior but believe that doing so would not actually result in a benefit to conservation. To illustrate, one might appreciate bicycling to work rather than driving but feel that it will not benefit conservation so long as too few adopt that behavior. Such mediating influences are represented, for example, in the values–beliefs–norms model [ 49 ] and the theory of planned behavior ([ 50 ]; Figure 2 ). Another example of this kind of constraint involves the organization of societies that, for example, make it difficult to recycle even though such behavior is valued [ 51 ]. Other possible preventative circumstances are far more basic, such as economic insecurity ([ 52 ], but see [ 44 ]), or the perceived risks of exhibiting pro-environmental behavior, such as the risk of losing livestock (an economic harm) to carnivores [ 53 ].

5. Purpose Is Understudied in Conservation Psychology

Several lines of psychological inquiry posit that human behavior is importantly rooted to purpose (for reviews, see [ 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]). The psychological notion of purpose is importantly commensurable with the notion of purpose used in virtue ethics: purpose is more transcendent and abstract than means-oriented values and virtues (which are more specific and often in service of a purpose), and purpose is characterized by its content, strength, and one’s awareness of their purpose.

Most psychological research on purpose has focused on understanding the causes and consequences of the strength and awareness of one’s purpose(s). People with a strong sense of purpose tend to be happier, healthier, and wealthier [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ]. A sense of purpose is also stronger among conservatives (compared with liberals; [ 63 ]), among those with a stronger sense of religiosity ([ 64 ], but see [ 65 ]), and among those who practice particular forms of meditation [ 66 , 67 ]. These and other patterns of this ilk evoke hypotheses about the causal mechanisms that lead to a stronger sense of purpose. The connection between strength of purpose and pro-conservation behaviors is essentially unstudied.

The content of individuals’ purpose(s) is also very much understudied. This circumstance may be attributable to thinking the range of purposes that could exist is strongly regulated by an individual’s culture; consequently, studying the content of purpose and passing normative judgment on the content of one’s purpose is of “minimal utility” for psychological inquiry [ 55 , 68 ]. The robustness of that explanation of the circumstance is far less important than the circumstance itself, i.e., the content of individuals’ purpose is not well studied in psychology—especially as the subject may pertain to understanding why individuals vary in the expression of pro-conservation behaviors.

The unaddressed questions are stark: Does the propensity to exhibit pro-conservation behavior vary with the strength or content of one’s sense for the purpose of their life? Is conservation fundamentally limited by the purposes that most people pursue? Is it possible to appreciably shape the content of life’s purpose of individuals or groups to favor conservation?

6. Synthesis

The preceding is not a grab bag of ideas from disparate disciplines—juxtaposed for academic curiosity. Rather, we assemble these ideas to develop an argument for a unified purpose of conservation and governance. The first part of this argument is represented by Figure 3 and the second part begins to unfold in the next section ( Section 7 ). The argument, if sufficiently robust, and promises a purpose that would foster pro-conservation behavior without neglecting concern for social justice. The argument implies the kind of governance that would promote, for example, protecting lions without neglecting the interests of humans who coexist with lions, conserving tropical forests without disregarding humans whose livelihoods have depended on using these forests, and allowing business the liberties to compete and flourish without risking the health of rivers, lakes, or oceans.

The black portions represent a simple model of behavior that transcends ethics and psychology. This model suppresses some of the intermediary steps depicted in Figure 2 to help draw attention to other more salient elements of the model. The nature of governance is represented from within that model of behavior (green). Colored portions (blue, green, red) from outside the black model imply with useful precision how to appropriately juxtapose the normative and empirical elements of governance as it pertains to conservation. Numbers in parentheses indicate sections of this paper that address the various boxed ideas: (1) Purpose in Conservation, (2) Purpose Lost, Purpose Found, (3) Purpose Is Understudied In Conservation Psychology, (4) Appendix B , (5) Behavioral Science and Values and (6) Figure 2 . Values refers to “transcendent values” as that term is used in the main text.

The black portions of Figure 3 depict a simplified model of human behavior that synthesizes insight from virtue ethics and behavioral science. Inside the black portion of Figure 3 , one finds good governance represented as knowing where and how to intervene on behavior-related processes (and by implication when to refrain from intervening). Outside the black portions of Figure 3 are indications of how normative ethics and empirical science commingle in the service of conservation governance. Most importantly, we see indications that (i) the capacity to predict behavior may be advanced by empirical inquiry focused on the role that purpose plays in shaping behavior and (ii) the development of purpose (for an individual or group of individuals) entails a strong and inescapably normative element. These indications are more fully explored in subsequent sections.

The model in Figure 3 presumes that a role of governance includes, at least in principle, intervening on behavior of individuals and collectives for the purpose of promoting some normative aim. While the limits and hazards associated with such a presumption are significant and worth every moment of attention [ 69 , 70 ], the hazards of rejecting such a presumption are no less weighty [ 71 , 72 , 73 ].

7. Purpose Lost, Purpose Found

Conservation’s purpose—to avert the biodiversity crisis—seems straightforward and thoroughly unobjectionable (see Section 1 ). However, critical insight about the purpose of conservation may be found in what appears to be early stages of transformation for the purpose of economics and political theory. While all three disciplines—economics, political theory, and conservation—are especially important to human well-being, economics and political theory have had more influence on governance for a longer period of time. We posit, if conservation is to play a substantive role in the future well-being of humans, then conservation’s purpose may also require transformation like that which may be occurring in economics and political theory.

We follow Raworth [ 74 ] (pp. 32–40) in recounting transformations in the purpose of economics: When the word was invented more than two millennia ago, economics referred to the art of household management and set distinct from another then newly-coined word, chrematistics, the art of acquiring wealth. In the 1760s, as modern science was being born, James Stuart defined “political economy” as a science whose explicit normative purpose was to guide domestic policy for free nations aiming to secure living and jobs for all in a mutually thriving community. A decade later, Adam Smith articulated a similar normative purpose for the science of economics. Its first purpose is to enable citizens to provide themselves with “plentiful revenue”. Its second purpose is to enable nations to supply themselves with “revenue sufficient for the public services”.

Two generations later, John Stuart Mill defined political economy as a science which “traces the laws of such of the phenomena of society as arise from the combined operations of mankind for the production of wealth”. The emphasis was describing laws. That is, describing how the world “is”. Attention and detail that had been given to the normative purpose of describing those laws was quietly reduced to very simply the “production of wealth”.

Three generations later, in 1932, Lionel Robbins completed the dissolution of normative purpose in political economics by defining it as a “science which studies human behaviors as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses”. That is, economics is a science whose purview is to understand “what is” without regard for “what ought to be”. This conceptualization, purportedly value-neutral, dominated the minds of the most influential economists for much of the 20th century—especially the Chicago school of economics.

In truth, this conceptualization not only obscured powerful (and questionable) ethical presumptions [ 75 , 76 ], it also created a purpose vacuum that was filled by the mid-20th century; that is, efficient, perpetual exponential growth of nations’ gross domestic products. Perpetual GDP growth landed in the seat of purpose not because of any reflected upon normative reasoning. Rather, it resulted from a newly acquired capacity to measure GDP and heat-of-the-moment political reactions to economic crises of the interwar period.

This centuries-long transmogrification of purpose in economics is consistent with MacIntyre [ 26 ], who also makes a case that modernity brought a broad cultural shift in the perception of life’s purpose—a shift that persists to the present day. Purpose, so it is argued, was reduced, in a word, to efficiency. That is, efficiency for its own sake. Efficiency aimed in any direction. The case is a simple corollary of the theory of bureaucracy developed by Max Weber (a founder of modern sociology), which explains how Western society elevates the role of efficiency over other normative purposes in the 20th century technocratic life [ 77 ].

If modernity witnessed the dissolution (and reconstitution) of economics’ normative purpose, then the Anthropocene—with its attending crises of the environment and social justice—will almost certainly usher new developments in purpose. Early signs suggest that a new normative purpose for economics may be something like the realization of “human prosperity [broadly construed] in a flourishing web of life”, where web of life includes various manifestations of human and non-human life [ 74 ]. Impressive signs of economic’s changing purpose may be found, for example, in Stiglitz [ 78 ].

One may think, at this point: yes, good for economics. Conservation has always had an explicitly and broadly benevolent purpose—avert the biodiversity crisis. Unfortunately, the case may not be quite that simple. Is averting the biodiversity crisis the ultimate purpose of conservation? Or is it a proximate purpose, with the ultimate purpose of conservation to serve only the well-being of humans? Or is the purpose of conservation to serve the well-being of humans and nonhuman life—especially species, populations, and ecosystems?

Before exploring these wrinkles in conservation’s purpose, allow us to briefly review how social justice and political theory are also experiencing their own developments in purpose, summarized here from an account detailed in Nussbaum [ 79 ]. These disciplines rose from an explicit presumption about what the purpose of life ought to be. From Thomas Hobbes (17th century philosophy, of “nature red in tooth and claw” fame) to John Rawls (one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century), political theory has largely presumed that the purpose of life ought to be: cooperation among approximate equals in search of mutual benefit in their public lives [ 79 , 80 ]. This foundation ultimately fosters real-world biases based on gender, race, wealth, and health that grow into profound injustices observable within households and nations and between neighborhoods and nations. This understanding of purpose (associated with contractarian understandings of political theory) spurred a more recent and countervailing view associated with the, so-called, capabilities approach to social justice [ 81 ]. This approach to social justice presumes that the purpose of a human life is to cooperate for the purpose of allocating entitlements among those to whom entitlements are owed, including humans and non-humans ( Appendix C ). This understanding of social justice has gained substantive traction, for example, in the activities of the United Nations, not least their Sustainable Development Goals.

As modernity gave way to the Anthropocene, economics and social justice—domains of scholarship with profound influence on well-being—have begun to show signs of developing a richer, more robust account of normative purpose. If conservation is to be taken by the world’s leaders with similar gravitas, conservation leaders may likewise be wise to reach for a deeper understanding of conservation’s purpose and its relationship to other domains of life.

8. Conservation

8.1. purpose of conservation.

Conservation would seem to have an abundantly clear purpose: avert the biodiversity crisis (see Section 1 ). Conservation’s more proximate purpose entails means by which to do so, such as eliminate over-exploitation of species and restore the health of ecosystems upon which species depend. Useful as these expressions of purpose are, they have at least two critical limitations.

The first is highlighted by asking, why do we wish to avert the biodiversity crisis? Is it predominantly because human well-being depends on averting the crisis? Or is the well-being of non-human life—beyond its value to humans—also a critically important reason for conservation? In other words, is conservation an anthropocentric or non-anthropocentric endeavor? If the latter, non-anthropocentric in precisely what manner? Those questions run like fault lines through the conservation community. The answers say much about the purpose of conservation, because many aspects of biodiversity are not sufficiently or obviously important to human well-being.

A second limitation to conservation’s unembellished purpose—i.e., avert the biodiversity crisis—is highlighted by asking how does this purpose relate to other basic public interests, especially economic freedoms, personal liberties, social inequalities, and obligations to treat individual animals with concern for their wellbeing. The precise meaning of these interests and the importance placed on them—in relationship to conservation—influence greatly answers to questions like: under what conditions is it acceptable to kill animals in the name of conservation and, under what conditions is it acceptable to infringe on the liberties and well-being of some humans in the name of conservation? Two specific cases, of many, are trophy hunting lions to conserve lion habitat [ 20 ] and displacing destitute refuges to protect endangered elephants [ 82 ]. That these public interests—human well-being, animal welfare, and biodiversity—interact in such a basic way indicates the need for a purpose of conservation that is deeply and mindfully integrated with other social purposes.

The community of conservation professionals may represent perhaps four distinct purposes for conservation. New conservation emphasizes averting the biodiversity crisis primarily for the ultimate purpose of benefiting human wellbeing [ 17 ]. What might be called orthodox conservation emphasizes that species and ecosystems possess intrinsic value ( Appendix D ) and averting the biodiversity crisis is its own ultimate purpose—aside from whether doing so satisfies human wellbeing. This perspective is represented by, for example [ 83 ], Soulé [ 84 ], and the mission statement of the Society for Conservation Biology [ 85 ]. Compassionate conservation may be seen as a reaction to the increasing use of killing as a conservation tool, which in turn is a reaction to the widespread impact of non-native and invasive species. It believes that conservation cannot fulfill its purpose when it relies as often as it does on killing individual animals [ 86 ]. Another vision of conservation sees a close association between its purpose as maintaining and protecting hunting heritage [ 87 , 88 ]. While this vision is rooted to North America, the connection between hunting and conservation has an important influence in, for example, Europe [ 89 ] and Africa [ 90 ]. Other fault lines through conservation’s purpose are indicated by perspectives offered in Treves et al. [ 91 ], Washington et al. [ 92 ], and Vucetich et al. [ 93 ].

Realizing a well-conserved world likely depends on an adequately specified purpose that is widely supported by the conservation community and subsequently embraced by society at large. Neither circumstance has, thus far, been realized. We are not arguing for universal agreement to the n th degree; however, there is almost certainly a need for broader agreement on a more richly specified purpose of conservation.

8.2. Purpose(s) in Life

The preceding pertains to conservation’s purpose at an institutional level. This institutional purpose —avert the biodiversity crisis, for whatever ultimate reason and by whatever acceptable means—would not be a personal purpose of life for the vast majority of individual humans. Yet, there is a need to better understand what personal purposes are most capable of advancing conservation.

Conservation professionals recognize two broad motivations for conservation that are relevant for the consideration personal purposes. One motivation is anthropocentric and the other is non-anthropocentric. Conservation professionals are not of like mind about which motivation is appropriate [ 25 ]. Prior work [ 18 ] suggests that an anthropocentric vision of conservation is consistent with a personal purpose of life, something like:

Consume products, material and energy as much as desired without infringing on interests of other humans (present and future) to do the same.

A non-anthropocentric vision of conservation is, however, consistent with a personal purpose, something like:

Consume products, material and energy as little as necessary to maintain a healthy, meaningful life.

The phrase “healthy, meaningful life” is less vague and subjective than might be presupposed. This concept is, for example, subject to considerable objective reasoning through social and behavioral sciences [ 93 ]. Yet, its meaning is also subject to normative considerations about, for example, fair allocations of resources [ 94 ]. This latter non-anthropocentric purpose is also flexible enough to provide corrective guidance to those using more than appropriate and to those using less than is fair.

Those two purposes would lead to very different worlds. Moreover, one might not be surprised if psychological inquiry were to indicate that increased affinity for the first anthropocentric purpose is associated with behaviors that exacerbate the biodiversity crisis. If so, it would likely be due to the first purpose’s emphasis on consuming as much as desired [ 95 ].

The second non-anthropocentric purpose, however, seems well aligned with emerging purposes in economics and social justice. The second purpose may also reduce risks of unintended consequences of well-intended policy [ 95 ], including cases where well-intended (or well-purposed) policies are manipulated by citizens who do not share the motivating purpose. One example of such manipulation is when the US policy for biofuel (a possibly well-intended policy) led to overexploitation of Indonesia’s forests [ 96 ]. A more general example is Jevon’s paradox, whereby well-intended gains in technological efficiency do not result in reduced consumption. For example, increased fuel efficiency of US automobiles in past decades was followed by increased rates of driving, not reduced fuel consumption [ 97 ]. Citizens that share a genuinely pro-conservation purpose are more likely to follow the spirit of pro-conservation policies, rather than merely adhere to such policy in a technical manner.

Finally, the aforementioned personal purposes would undoubtedly interact with other important and more varied personal purposes, ranging from being an entrepreneur, family provider, artist, teacher, patriot, child of God, and myriad more. Far too little is known about which of the most common purposes in life align well with conservation’s purpose or pro-conservation behaviors that would rise from those purposes.

8.3. Governance

Allow us to suppose, for the sake of illustrating a point, that “ consume as little as necessary to maintain a healthy, meaningful life ” is the purpose most capable of averting the biodiversity crisis. If the biodiversity crisis ranks among humanity’s most basic challenges, then to what extent ought that purpose—or any such purpose—be inherited by government? Intriguing as the question may seem, it covers too much ground in a single step. Allow us to begin by noting that the biodiversity crisis is related to a phenomenon that economists classify as overexploitation of a common-pool resource (CPR).

8.4. Common-Pool Resources

Considerable research indicates that CPRs can be sustainably exploited by small groups of self-governed humans under a set of eight conditions [ 98 ]. One condition is “well-defined boundaries around a community of users” [ 99 , 100 ]. That boundary includes a sufficiently shared sense of purpose (or end goal) about the resource and its exploitation [ 23 ]. This sense of purpose would be expressed through attitudes and norms of behavior, where deviators are admonished lightly and in graduated fashion and adherents are conspicuously rewarded [ 23 ].

Two other conditions (traditionally denoted as conditions 7 and 8) stipulate that the small group of self-governed are embedded in a larger network of governance (e.g., regional and federal government) that fosters (or at least does not interfere with) the group’s purpose.

If the three conditions hold—along with the other five conditions developed by Ostrom [ 98 ] and further evaluated by Cox et al. [ 99 ]—then self-governance by a small group may outperform resource management dominated by top-down regulation or privatization (each of which have their own demanding conditions for realizing sustainable exploitation).

Humans do not necessarily adopt those eight conditions for sustainable exploitation automatically. Additionally, developing a shared purpose in a small group bound only by a CPR can be challenging, but not dreamy. However, as the group becomes larger and more diverse, so too increases the difficulty of developing a sufficiently shared purpose [ 23 ]. In summary, principles of governance acknowledge (if not underplay) the central importance of shared purpose.

8.5. National Governments

National governments have purposes that evolve and develop over time. For example, several nations of western Europe took as an important purpose the allocation of welfare in the years following World War II. During the last two decades of the 20th century, the US and UK governments stepped away from that purpose, arguably toward the purpose of promoting principles of free-market economies (sensu [ 101 , 102 , 103 ]).

Citizens embrace national purposes to varying degrees (including explicit opposition). However, there is always sufficient support (or insufficient opposition), on the whole, to sustain the purpose for as long as it persists. Developments in a national government’s purpose are sometimes intentionally driven and sometimes result in unintended consequences.

Given the preceding, to what extent—if at all—should a national government embrace a purpose akin to “ consume as little as necessary to maintain a healthy, meaningful life ”? A key consideration would seem to include a nation’s proclivity for economic and personal liberty. In more liberal nations, any such purpose would root (or wither) via a “free” market of ideas. In less liberal nations, any such purpose would depend more on marketing a purpose-idea to government officials. In either case, the fate of a purpose-idea would seem to benefit from understanding the supportive roles of robust reason [ 104 , 105 ], marketing and campaigning [ 106 , 107 ], the sociology and history of social change, and how policy-relevant ideas spread [ 108 , 109 , 110 ].

Embracing a non-anthropocentric purpose of conservation in more liberal societies likely requires understanding any such purpose in at least three particular ways:

As an ecologically informed understanding of the law of equal liberty (i.e., freedom up to the point of undue infringement on others’ well-being), rather than a well-intended though overly exuberant imposition on liberty [ 71 ].

Not as an austerity program, but as the removal of obstacles to freely pursue a healthy meaningful life. The prospect for seeing the non-anthropocentric purpose in this way is positive, as indicated by a recent increase in governments’ interest in policies informed by the science of subjective well-being [ 111 ].

As being about “happiness” now and thus in tune with humans’ innate tendency to discount the future [ 112 , 113 ] and quickly return to a relatively stable state of happiness following major negative or positive life changes [ 114 ].

We do not claim that establishing these understandings would be easy—but it is plausible that they are necessary, at least during a phase that would precede widespread adoption of the purpose.

Advancing a purpose like, “ consume as little as necessary to maintain a healthy, meaningful life ” is not fantastical. For example, Bhutan demonstrates that an entire nation can set personal well-being as a formal purpose of government. Some western leaders have developed proposals that point in the same direction, such as Stiglitz et al. [ 78 ], which was commissioned by French President Sarkozy.

Also relevant to the prospect of a nation’s embrace of this purpose is international power dynamics. Thus, it is important to ask, how international power dynamics would be affected—over shorter and longer time frames—by nations embracing or rejecting any such purpose to varying degrees.

Finally, the world’s top 100 economies include 31 nations and 69 corporations [ 115 ]. Advancing a pro-conservation purpose will depend as much on national governments as it will on corporations’ purposes and their sense of corporate responsibility [ 116 ].

These matters of governance are generally relegated to arcane discourse among political theorists and often the subject of acrimonious proclamations by political commentators. Yet, the analysis presented here suggests these matters of governance ought to be treated with great interest by conservation professionals of every stripe.

8.6. Ethical Knowledge

A purpose we have been considering— consume as little as necessary to maintain a healthy, meaningful life —emerges from considering a particular vision of non-anthropocentrism, which has been labelled just conservation [ 93 ]. An important topic for future scholarship would be whether other visions of non-anthropocentrism—especially just preservation [ 91 ] and ecojustice [ 92 ]—lead to purposes that would be appreciably different?

In any case, the frontier of non-anthropocentrism—where we believe one will find a richer understanding of conservation’s purpose—lies in knowing: (i) how to act in cases where resource scarcity precludes meeting all the interests of both humans and nonhumans and (ii) precisely what counts as resource scarcity. That is, when exactly is conservation a zero-sum game and when is it not? What counts as a win-win outcome? When are win-wins possible and when are they not? Those outstanding questions demand attention from ecosystem science (e.g., [ 117 ]) and behavioral science (see the next section), but they also deserve the scrutiny of conceptual analyses (e.g., [ 93 , 118 ]).

According to basic principles of social justice, a zero-sum game may be resolved fairly by giving due consideration to each of four principles: need, equality, equity, and entitlement [ 94 , 119 ]. The precise weight of consideration for each principle is the focus of discourse and insight in western political theory—ongoing for the past 2500 years. This discourse generally assumes that the two agents involved in the zero-sum game are both human. An outstanding question: How, if at all, do insights about need, equality, equity, and entitlement apply to zero-sum games where some of the agents are not human? This question is only beginning to be explored (Vucetich et al. [ 93 ] and references therein).

The centuries-old discourse on justice in the West is also rich with discussion about the relative weight given to individuals versus collectives (of humans)—from Plato’s Republic to Karl Popper’s Open Society (1945). The difficulty of this discourse hints at how much more complicated conservation is made by its purview to take account of an even broader set of concerns: individual humans, human collectives (NGOs, corporations, and nations), individual nonhuman animals, and ecological collectives (populations, species, and ecosystems).

The conservation literature gives the impression, often enough, that the biodiversity crisis is associated with giving too much emphasis to utilitarianism and insufficient emphasis to deontology (e.g., [ 120 ]) (those frameworks, deontology and utilitarianism, are defined in Section 3 ). Yet, ethical theory provides no reason to think those frameworks place a constraint on the inclusiveness of one’s moral community. As such, an outstanding question is: How are moral judgments pertaining to conservation informed by the sometimes-conflicting principles of deontology and utilitarianism?

These may be among the most important questions to pursue via humanities scholarship to better understand conservation’s purpose and its manifestation in the world.

8.7. Empirical Knowledge

Consider, as an example, just one issue from the preceding section—say, the relative weight given to equality and entitlement ( Appendix C ) when making moral judgments pertaining to conservation. The collective scholarship from the humanities on justice is importantly an assessment of the perils of leaning too hard on one principle or the other. Much insight on the same topic is also found in empirical scholarship. For example, the weight given to equality (as opposed to merit or entitlement) varies across cultures, with candidate explanatory variables, such as the society’s degree of Westernization, mode of production (industrial, hunter-gatherer, agriculture), and frequency of anonymous social interactions [ 121 , 122 , 123 ]. This single example is an exceedingly modest gesture toward a large body of empirical insight on the sociology and psychology of social justice (e.g., the journal, Social Justice Research ).

Social psychology has long appreciated the feasibility and pitfalls of shaping behavior by intervening at various points in the causal chain that precedes behavior. For example, it is difficult to change TVs [ 69 ] and TVs may not be especially constraining on behavior. Much insight lies with empirical knowledge about the effectiveness and limits of intervening on the cognitions that precede behavior [ 124 ]. Behavior can also be favorably modified by structuring society in ways that make desired behaviors easy and undesired behaviors difficult [ 51 ]. Far less is known about the behavioral consequences of attempting to shape another’s purpose .

A society’s basic values (including its purposes) are manifest through various elements of a society in ways that are self-reinforcing [ 69 ]. Those forces lend stability to a social group, but they are an obstacle when seeking change. Intentionally advancing a pro-conservation purpose requires empirical knowledge about those reinforcing processes.

Finally, advancing a pro-conservation purpose would likely be aided by principles of:

Natural governance—which is mindful of the ecological and evolutionary processes that shaped human behavior [ 24 ]—though the most effective form of such theory and its integration with real-world governance seem to be matters of debate (compare, for example, Pinker [ 125 ] with Wilson [ 126 ], Bellah [ 127 ], and Turchin and Gavrilets [ 128 ]) and;

Libertarian paternalism [ 129 ] and choice architecture—which aim to “nudge” people toward making decisions that favor certain behaviors without undue infringement on liberty [ 130 ].

8.8. Cultural Imperialism

Advocating for a pro-conservation purpose can be, undeniably, cultural imperialism. It would be so toward any culture who valued (in principle or in practice) the unsustainable use of natural resources, unbounded consumerism, economic growth, and gross inequality. The cultures that most comes to mind are some of the cultures sometimes described as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic).

Furthermore, and still suppose that “ consume as little as necessary to maintain a healthy, meaningful life ” is the purpose most capable of advancing conservation: The notion of a “healthy, meaningful life” is flexible enough to honor cultural variation, yet the notion is not vacuous given the philosophical and scientific knowledge of subjective and objective well-being [ 114 ].

9. Conclusions

Conservation-related behaviors are explained by many factors ( Figure 2 ). Among the important mediating influences may well be virtues and means-oriented values—like caring, loyalty, or any of the values that compose moral foundations theory ( Figure 1 ). However, any means-oriented value may serve a wide range of purposes or ends-oriented values—whether that be a pro-conservation purpose or some purpose that works against conservation. As such, means-oriented values (and virtues) pose little constraint on one’s purpose. If a well-conserved Earth depends on understanding various relationships between purpose and behavior, then scholarly inquiry synthesizing these disciplines will be especially valuable.

Purpose also lies in the soul of virtue ethics and governance. Contemplating and manifesting one’s existential purpose are also what make us uniquely human. Purpose in economics and social justice has developed over time and may again be showing early signs of change. Those changes in purpose would be tectonic. Those nascent changes may also indicate the direction conservation’s purpose is liable to take—especially if conservation is to be counted by social leaders as an endeavor for the inclusive and collective welfare of the planet’s denizens. At present, the purpose of conservation is either underspecified (avert the biodiversity crisis, but to what end and by what means?) or contested.

The path to a rebooted purpose capable of advancing conservation is slow and full of pitfalls. Those circumstance do not lessen what appears to be the necessity of fostering such a purpose. The necessity is born from any interest to allow humans the liberty to pursue healthy, meaningful lives and coexist with each other and myriad forms of biodiversity—whales, mangroves, bees, peatlands, panthers, and the rest.

Appendix A. Primer on Three Ethical Frameworks

To highlight distinctions (and similarities) among the frameworks, consider a heuristic example: Is it acceptable to squash a spider in the house, as opposed to escorting it outside? The utilitarian would emphasis the decision with the greatest utility. Before doing so, the utilitarian has to decide whose utility is of concern in the first place—only the human, or both the human and the spider. The deontologist would ask is the spider the kind of creature to which we have any obligations; if so, what are they. The virtuous person might be moved by feelings associated with the virtue of kindness—a virtue that for one reason or another has been selected for cultivation—and would likely escort the spider outside.

In many cases, the three ethical frameworks would endorse the same decision, but not always. While the three frameworks differ significantly in emphasis, they are not wholly independent of each other (e.g., [ 131 ]). Moreover, psychological research indicates that real human decisions routinely draw on principles from more than one ethical framework [ 132 , 133 ].

One might think—if only superficially—that conservation is justified as well by one framework as the next: Maintaining healthy populations of pollinators will result in the greatest utility to the greatest number. We have a duty to protect mangroves and coral reefs for future generations. The virtuous person would protect endangered rhinos.

Indifference over ethical frameworks is shortsighted for not recognizing that each framework has its own limitations. Utilitarianism does not work especially well when there are difficulties predicting or fully accounting for the consequences of an action. Deontology sometimes seems hamstrung by conflicting duties that are not easily adjudicated. Virtue ethics is challenged when there is insufficient insight to guide decisions about what virtues should be espoused and how they ought to be directed (more on this below). The limitations do not paralyze ethical decision-making. In some cases, they are caveats to be accommodated. The complimentary nature of these frameworks also suggests that the most robust conservation ethic is thoughtfully pluralistic with respect to these frameworks. This being said and for reasons given in the main text, we focus on virtue ethics.

Appendix B. Virtues and Values—A Bridge

We assume readers have brought a colloquial understanding of the concept of virtue. To have done so is useful. Nevertheless, there is insight in reflecting on a more formal understanding. The ethicist’s notion of virtue is well represented by MacIntyre [ 26 ]:

Virtues are dispositions not only to act in particular ways, but also to feel in particular ways. To act virtuously is not, as Kant was later to think, to act against inclination; it is to act from inclination formed by the cultivation of the virtues.

A critical bridge—a point of commensurability—is built between ethics and behavioral science by recognizing that virtues are strongly comparable to values—as that concept is employed in a technical sense by many behavioral scientists. This notion of value in the discipline of psychology is well represented by Schwartz [ 134 ] ([ 37 ], p. 222):

Values are beliefs linked inextricably to affect (emotions)… Values refer to desirable goals that motivate action… Values transcend specific actions and situations… Values serve as standards. They guide the selection or evaluation of actions, policies, people, events, and people, including oneself… People decide what is good or bad, justified or illegitimate, and worth doing or avoiding on the basis of possible consequences for their cherished values…

Following Raymond and Kenter [ 31 ] and others, we refer to these as transcendental values (TVs). Doing so helps distinguish this concept from other distinct concepts that also happen to use the word “value”, such as economic value or intrinsic value.

Aside from the obvious similarities between values and virtues, we draw attention to similarities that might have been overlooked: the role of emotion in TVs is analogous to the role of “feeling” in virtues. Additionally, the dispositional nature of a virtue is analogous to the notion that TVs “transcend specific actions and situations.”

Appendix C. Entitlement

The term “entitlement” is jargon, related to, but distinct from, important understandings of rights. For example, voting is a right for women in France that was created by a social contract in 1945. However, French women were entitled to vote before 1945. The existence of the entitlement motivated the creation of the right. Entitlement is also distinct from desert—noun form of deserve—in the sense that entitlements are not necessarily earned by merit.

Appendix D. Non-Anthropocentrism

This appendix is a summary of Vucetich et al. [ 16 ] and a near-verbatim presentation of Appendix C in Vucetich et al. [ 20 ]. To be non-anthropocentric means to acknowledge that at least some elements of nonhuman life possess intrinsic value. An object possesses instrumental value if it is valuable as a means to some other end, and possesses intrinsic value if valuable beyond its instrumental value or valuable for its own sake [ 135 ]. If something possesses intrinsic value it means essentially that we have an obligation to treat it with respect or fairly and with at least some concern for its wellbeing or interests.

That individual vertebrate organisms possess intrinsic value is widely accepted. One of the more important lines of reasoning begins with the supposition that humans possess intrinsic value because we have interests (e.g., to avoid pain and to flourish). Given that supposition, it follows that any entity with such interests would also possess intrinsic value. Because all vertebrate organisms possess those interests, they also possess intrinsic value. The force and universality of that reasoning is indicated by the principle of ethical consistency, i.e., treat others as you would consent to be treated in the same position (for a general review, see [ 136 ]; for applications to nonhumans, see [ 137 , 138 ], p. 12 of [ 139 ]; see Nussbaum [ 79 ] for a similar application of a traditionally anthropocentric ethic to nonhumans). Most human cultures are undergirded by some variant of this principle (e.g., the golden rule). The intrinsic value of at least some non-human portions of nature is also widely appreciated—as reflected by sociological evidence [ 140 ] and the laws and policies of many governments.

Because all living things have an interest to flourish, a case has been made that all living things possess intrinsic value—a position known as biocentrism [ 141 , 142 ]. While the case for complete biocentrism may not be so widely appreciated, the case for intrinsic value of mammals and birds is essentially undisputed. That later case is more than enough to support claims we make about the purpose of conservation and sustainability.

While those considerations pertain to the intrinsic value of organisms, different reasoning is required to consider the intrinsic value of ecological collectives, such as populations, species, and ecosystems. One line of reasoning would be that ecological collectives are normally homeostatic, resilient, and interconnected and that those properties imbue them with intrinsic value [ 143 ]. Some, but not all, ecologists believe that ecological collectives are not characterized by those properties (e.g., [ 144 , 145 ]). Nevertheless, whether an ecological collective possesses those traits is not entirely a scientific question, but is in an important sense a metaphysical question (to illustrate: Describing the interconnectedness of a system is usefully considered a purely scientific endeavor (but see [ 146 ]); but judging whether those interconnections are sufficiently intimate for the system to qualify, for example, as an organism involves a significant metaphysical considerations (e.g., [ 147 , 148 ]). As such, it is at least partially relevant that many (if not most) people believe that “nature possesses a delicate balance that is easily upset by humans [ 149 ]”.

A second line of thinking (also developed by Leopold [ 143 ]) also supports the intrinsic value of ecological collectives. This line of thinking begins with the supposition that we humans, along with ecological collectives, are members of the same biotic community. In sharing community membership, and by extending the moral principles that apply to human communities, we ought to treat ecological collectives with respect.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.A.V., E.A.M., D.B., J.T.B., D.D.P.J. and D.W.M.; writing—original draft preparation, J.A.V.; writing—review and editing, J.A.V., E.A.M., D.B., J.T.B., D.D.P.J. and D.W.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

The development of this article was supported by the Martin School of University of Oxford, though a fellowship to JAV. For that support we are grateful. We are grateful for support from the Templeton Religion Trust and the Issachar Fund.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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ECCO is pleased to share the Publication: ‘Conservation Ethics today: are our Conservation-Restoration Theories and Practice ready for the 21st Century? with the contributions of the Conservation-Restoration Profession by ENCoRE, ECCO, ARI (Italy) and VDR (Germany). Ursula Schadler-Saub, International Scientific Committee for Theory and Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration ICOMOS: “The present publication in the proceeding series “Heritage for Future” of ICOMOS Poland and the Technical University of Lublin is the result of an interdisciplinary exchange and cooperation between three international and national scientific committees of ICOMOS (the ISC Theory and Philosophy of Conservation-Restoration, the ISC Stone, and the German NSC Conservation-Restoration of Wall Paintings and Architectural Surfaces), renowned institutions of conservation-restoration and history of art, as well as institutions of education and professional representation in this field (the National Italian Conservation Institute Opificio delle Pietre Dure OPD in Florence, the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Max-Planck-Institut in Florence, the European Confederation of Conservator-Restorers’ Organisation E.C.C.O ., t he European Network of Conservation-Restoration Education ENCoRE, the Italian and German Professional Associations of Conservator-Restorers (A.R.I. Associazione Restauratori d’Italia and VDR Verband der Restauratoren) . It is based on an international ICOMOS conference held in Florence in March 2018, supported by the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco and its international institute Life Beyond Tourism.”

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Price: $39. UPC Number is 23700001266122. Trim: 6" x 9", 156 pp. Ethics & Critical Thinking in Conservation .  2013. ed. P. Hatchfield. Washington, DC: American Institute for Conservation.

"Just as the unexamined life is not worth living (or so I’ve been told) this volume’s essays demonstrates the value of a well-examined conservation life. Ethics and critical thinking are first about awareness." -- from a book review by Kevin Driedger.

This collection of essays brings to focus a moment in the evolution of the complex decision making processes required when conservators consider the treatment of cultural heritage materials. The papers presented here are drawn from two consecutive years of presentations at the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) Annual Meeting General Sessions. These were, in 2010, The Conservation Continuum: Examining the Past, Envisioning the Future , and in 2011, Ethos Logos Pathos: Ethical Principles and Critical Thinking in Conservation.

Table of Contents

• Conservation in the 21st Century: Will a 20th Century Code of Ethics Suffice? Barbara Appelbaum
• Legacies from the Past: Previous Repairs Deborah Bede
• To Treat or Not to Treat: Decision-making in Preparing Archives for Digitization Gabriëlle Beentjes
• Resuscitating Bamiyan’s Buddhas? A Dispatch from Dresden, Two Lessons Learned James Janowski
• Objects of Trauma, Finding the Balance Jane E. Klinger
• On Time and the Modalities of Conservation Frank Matero 
• The Frankenstein Syndrome Salvador Muñoz Viñas
• Restoration Ethics, Cleaning, and Perception: Case Studies from the Dutch Government Collection W. Wei, Z. Benders, and E. Domela Nieuwenhuis
• Book Review: Conservation Takes a Reflective Turn George Wheeler, introduction by Nancie Ravenel
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• Reimagine a F G H a N I S T a N REIMAGINE A F G H A N I S T A N A N I N I T I A T I V E B Y R A I S I N A H O U S E REIMAGINE A F G H A N I S T A N INTRODUCTION . Afghanistan equals Culture, heritage, music, poet, spirituality, food & so much more. The country had witnessed continuous violence for more than 4 ................................................... decades & this has in turn overshadowed the rich cultural heritage possessed by the country, which has evolved through mellinnias of Cultural interaction & evolution. Reimagine Afghanistan as a digital magazine is an attempt by Raisina House to explore & portray that hidden side of Afghanistan, one that is almost always overlooked by the mainstream media, the side that is Humane. Afghanistan is rich in Cultural Heritage that has seen mellinnias of construction & destruction but has managed to evolve to the better through the ages. Issued as part of our vision project "Rejuvenate Afghanistan", the magazine is an attempt to change the existing perception of Afghanistan as a Country & a society bringing forward that there is more to the Country than meets the eye. So do join us in this journey to explore the People, lifestyle, Art, Food, Music of this Adventure called Afghanistan. C O N T E N T S P A G E 1 AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY PROFILE P A G E 2 - 4 PEOPLE ETHNICITY & LANGUAGE OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 5 - 7 ART OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 8 ARTISTS OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 9 WOOD CARVING IN AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 0 GLASS BLOWING IN AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 1 CARPETS OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 2 CERAMIC WARE OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 3 - 1 4 FAMOUS RECIPES OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 5 AFGHANI POETRY P A G E 1 6 ARCHITECTURE OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 7 REIMAGINING AFGHANISTAN THROUGH CINEMA P A G E 1 8 AFGHANI MOVIE RECOMMENDATION A B O U T A F G H A N I S T A N Afghanistan Country Profile: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country situated between the crossroads of Western, Central, and Southern Asia and is at the heart of the continent. [Show full text]
• Musical (And Other) Gems from the State Library in Dresden Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 23, Number 20, May 10, 1996 Reviews Musical (and other) gems from the State Libraryin Dresden by Nora Hamennan One might easily ask how anything could be left of what was scribe, and illuminations by a Gentile artist painted in Chris­ once the glorious collection of books and manuscripts which tian Gothic style. An analogous "cross-cultural" blend is were the Saxon Royal Library, and then after 1918, Saxon shown in two French-language illuminated manuscripts of State Library in Dresden. After all, Dresden was razed to the works by Boccaccio and Petrarca, respectively, two of the ground by the infamous Allied firebombing in 1945, which "three crowns" of Italian 14th-century vernacular literature, demolished the Frauenkirche and the "Japanese Palace" that produced in the 15th-century French royal courts. Then had housed the library's most precious holdings, as well as comes a printed book, with hand-painted illuminations, of taking an unspeakable and unnecessary toll in innocent hu­ 1496, The Performanceo/Music in Latin by Francesco Gaffu­ man lives. Then, the Soviets, during their occupation of the rius, the music theorist whose career at the Milan ducal court eastern zone of Germany, carried off hundreds of thousands overlapped the sojourns there of Josquin des Prez, the most of volumes, most of which have not yet been repatriated. renowned Renaissance composer, and Leonardo da Vinci, The question is partially answered in the exhibit, "Dres­ regarded by contemporaries as the finestimprovisational mu­ den: Treasures from the Saxon State Library," on view at the sician. [Show full text]
• Architecture, German Identity, and Historical Memory After 1945 THE GERMANIC REVIEW From Frankfurt's Goethehaus to Dresden's Frauenkirche: Architecture, German Identity, and Historical Memory after 1945 SUSANNE VEES-GULANI otions of identity are often linked to specific places and spaces. N Cultural identity is usually rooted within communities that share traditions and a location within a certain geographical region. On a smaller scale, cultural identity is inadvertently tied to the physical structures and the architectural design organizing these spaces. Some groups, for example, might identify with a strong sense of the future and aspire to demonstrate their modernity by erecting contemporary buildings and structures, while others define themselves through his- torical sites (Layton and Thomas 1-2). The former case often leads to the destruction of historical remains to create space for the new; the latter frequently results in far-reaching conservation efforts to pre- serve remnants from the past. Since the late eighteenth century, particularly in many Western na- tions, such conservation efforts have increased, as sites and struc- tures from previous times began to function as visible confirmations of historical and national identity (Hunter 27-28). In the twentieth cen- tury, preservation of historical buildings and places reached new heights (Larkham 39), marking the emphasis many cultures now place on what they consider their heritage. In addition to historicist and nationalist arguments, this trend can be explained by current ex- periences. Maintaining and restoring historical sites lend stability to a world marked by large-scale destruction of familiar environments dur- ing war and rapid urban development, an unease with the modern sit- uation that seems to offer less possibilities of clearly and easily defin- ing oneself, and the fear of an uncertain future (Lowenthal 38). [Show full text]
• 182. BUDDHAS of BAMIYAN Bamiyan, Afghanistan Gand 1. IDENTIFICATION: (Artist,title, date, size, country of 2. FORM: (use of design elements/ principles: 3. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE: (art making origin, period/style) color, shape, value, texture, line, space; balance, processes) contrast, emphasis, movement, etc.) 182. BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN Cut rock with plaster and polychrome paint Bamiyan, Afghanistan Gandharan, c.400-800 CE- destroyed 2001 2 images- before and after destruction 4. CONTENT: (subject & genre: iconography, 5. ORIGINAL CONTEXT/ SITE/ INTENDED symbolism, the story) FUNCTION OF THE WORK: (Overlap to #6) 6. INTENDED PURPOSE & MOTIVATION (why was it 7. INNOVATION/ CHANGE(S): 8. THEME(S): made?); PATRON/AUDIENCE (who was it made for?); ARTIST’S DECISION MAKING: CONVENTION/ TRADITION(S): COMPARE TO ANOTHER WORK: 1. IDENTIFICATION: (Artist,title, date, size, country of 2. FORM: (use of design elements/ principles: 3. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE: (art making origin, period/style) color, shape, value, texture, line, space; balance, processes) contrast, emphasis, movement, etc.) 184. JOWO RINPOCHE, ENSHRINED IN JOKHANG Gilt metals with semiprecious stones, pearls, and TEMPLE paint; various offerings Lhasa, Tibet Yarlung Dynasty Believed to have been brought to Tibet in 641 CE 4. CONTENT: (subject & genre: iconography, 5. ORIGINAL CONTEXT/ SITE/ INTENDED symbolism, the story) FUNCTION OF THE WORK: (Overlap to #6) 6. INTENDED PURPOSE & MOTIVATION (why was it 7. INNOVATION/ CHANGE(S): 8. THEME(S): made?); PATRON/AUDIENCE (who was it made for?); ARTIST’S DECISION MAKING: CONVENTION/ TRADITION(S): COMPARE TO ANOTHER WORK: 1. IDENTIFICATION: (Artist, title, date, size, country 2. FORM: (use of design elements/ principles: 3. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE: (art making of origin, period/style) color, shape, value, texture, line, space; balance, processes) contrast, emphasis, movement, etc.) 192. [Show full text]
• Historic Organs of GERMANY May 22-June 4, 2019 14 Days with J historic organs of GERMANY May 22-June 4, 2019 14 Days with J. Michael Barone Hello, Pipedreams Friends! installation in Naumburg is said to represent Bach’s ‘organ ideal’. We’ll revisit the mighty 1855 Ladegast organ in Merseburg, where I invite you to join me on our next tour, an adventure amidst the Liszt’s masterpieces were premiered, this 80-stop instrument pipe organs of Bach Country…experiencing instruments old and fully restored since our last visit. But we’ll also make first-time new in Saxony and Thuringia. acquaintances with the eclectic 72-stop Rieger organ in Fulda, with its ornate early 18th century case, the first stop on our very Some of you might recall that the very first officialPipedreams Tour first day. We’ll hear the new, eclectic 76-stop Kern organ at the covered much of this territory, but this is not a simple repetition, Marienkirche in Dresden, only a pipe-dream when we visited back nor are we are closing the circle! Future tour plans are already in in 2002. And we’ll also experience the 1723 Wagner organ at St. the works for 2020 and 2021, and this year’s schedule takes us to Mary’s Church in Berlin and the 103-register Ladegast-Eule organ places and includes instruments not previously experienced. at the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, both now fully recommissioned. Of course, our itinerary will direct us to Eisenach, Bach’s birth- Visits to Bach’s Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the Liszt House in Wei- place; to Erfurt, the home territory of much of the Bach dynasty mar, the Handel House in Halle, the Meissen Porcelain [Show full text]
• Dresden Guide Activities Activities DRESDEN GUIDE ACTIVITIES ACTIVITIES Dresden Frauenkirche / Dresdner Frauenkirche New Market / Neumarkt A E The trademark sight of Dresden. This impressive church was re-opened A tribute to human persistence. The area was wiped out during World War only a few years ago after being destroyed during World War II firebomb- II, than re-built in socialist realist style. Only some 20 years ago was the ing. square restored to its pre-war look. An der Frauenkirche 5, 01067 Dresden, Germany Neumarkt, 01067 Dresden, Germany GPS: N51.05197, E13.74160 GPS: N51.05111, E13.74091 Phone: +49 351 656 06 100 Procession of Princes / Fürstenzug F An impressive mural, more than 100 meters long made out of 25,000 Zwinger porcelain tiles depicting the lineage of Saxony princes. A must-see. B The impressive Baroque palace built as a part of a former fort is a Augustusstraße, 01067 Dresden, Germany must-see. It hosts the Old Masters' Gallery among others. GPS: N51.05256, E13.73918 Theaterplatz 1, 01067 Dresden, Germany GPS: N51.05208, E13.73456 Semper Opera House / Semperoper Phone: G +49 351 4914601 A majestic opera house boasting a quality ensemble. A must-see for opera fans, but not only them. The building is worth a visit for its sheer beauty. Theaterplatz 2, 01067 Dresden, Germany Dresden Castle / Residenzschloss C GPS: N51.05422, E13.73553 You will find layers upon layers of different architectural styles on this fasci- Phone: nating palace – the former residence of the Saxon kings. +49 351 49110 Taschenberg 2, 01067 Dresden, Germany GPS: N51.05275, E13.73722 Brühl's Terrace / Brühlsche Terrasse Phone: H +49 351 46676610 A popular promenade located on the bank of Elbe nicknamed the “Balcony of Europe”. [Show full text]
• Energy Saxony ing·Working·Learning·RESEARCHING·PRODUCING·INVENTING·TRANSPORTING· THIN SAxony! INVENTING·LiVING·THINKINGA Place·Li in MotionVing·RESEARCHING·DeVeLoPING·LiVING·Learning LiVING·TRANSPORTING·LiVing·Working·Learning·reSearching·PRODUCING ·DeVeLoPING·Learning·THINKING·INVENTING·TransporTing·LiVing· a·PRODUCING·RESEARCHING·Working·LiVing·DeVeLoPING·Learning ·Learning·RESEARCHING·TransporTing·INVENTING·PRODUCING·THINKING·DeVeLoPING· ing·RESEARCHING·DeVeLoPING·LiVING·Learning·RESEARCHING·Working· Mobile DynaMic Flexible active vivacious Passionate 28 Infrastructure & Economy & Education, Training Research & Culture, Nature Location 6 Industry Sectors 9 & Qualification 14 Cooperation 18 & Recreation 23 Infrastructure – »Autoland Saxony« 10 Universities with Vibrant Research 19 Where Classic Meets Facts and Figures 8 Tradition 16 Cult 24 The Cradle of Science – Facts and Exceptional Studies 16 Custom-made Logistics 8 German Mechanical Figures 19 Vibrant Cities 25 Engineering 11 Practice-oriented (Cultural) Landscapes Vocational Training 16 Excellent University Economy – Facts and Research 20 26 Figures 12 Research as an Incen- From Water to »Silicon Saxony« 12 tive for Investments 20 Winter Sports 27 Environmental Focusing on the Technology and Future 22 Life Sciences 13 Source: Saxony Economic Development Corporation (WFS – Wirtschaftsförderung Sachsen GmbH) Company/Institution URL Company/Institution URL Infrastructure & Location Research & Cooperation DHL Leipzig Hub www.dp-dhl.de/leipzig AZZURRo Semiconductors AG www.azzurro-semiconductors.com [Show full text]
• A Visit to the Dresden Frauenkirche and Peter D Reza Jalili A Visit to the Dresden Frauenkirche and Peter D. Kirchner IBM Research Division T. J. Watson Research Center Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 Abstract Jorge Montoya and The Frauenkirche was destroyed when Dresden was bombed by the Allied forces Feb- Stephen Duncan ruary 13-14, 1945. The church is now being reconstructed in an effort led by the Research Triangle Institute Foundation for the Reconstruction of the Frauenkirche. The VRDECK software package Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 developed at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center was used to view and walk through a model created from the original church plans. A Polhemus tracker and a cus- Luc Genevriez tom-built joystick using the Logitech 3D mouse were used for six-degree-of-freedom I I Rue Ledru-Rollin input to the application. The interactive fly-through of the church is in an immersive 92500 Rueil-Malmaison, France environment. One can navigate around the model wearing a head-mounted display, sitting in front of a standard monitor, looking at a stereo image produced on a stereo James S. Lipscomb monitor, or standing before a projection screen displaying a stereo image of the scene. Robert H. Wolfe The system was developed for and exhibited at the IBM booth in the CeBIT fair in Han- and nover, Germany in March 1994 with funding from IBM Germany. Christopher F. Codella IBM Research Division T. J. Watson Research Center I Introduction Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 The Frauenkirche was destroyed when Dresden was bombed by the Al- lied forces February 13-14, 1945. The church is now being reconstructed in an effort led by the Foundation for the Reconstruction of the Frauenkirche (Whit- ney, 1994). [Show full text]
• Nationalist Ethnicities As Religious Identities: Islam, Buddhism, and Citizenship in Myanmar Imtiyaz Yusuf ajiss34-4-noconfrep_ajiss 11/3/2017 9:31 AM Page 100 Forum Nationalist Ethnicities as Religious Identities: Islam, Buddhism, and Citizenship in Myanmar Imtiyaz Yusuf Preliminary Statement: An Overview of Muslim-Buddhist Relations For centuries, the Rohingya have been living within the borders of the coun - try established in 1948 as Burma/Myanmar. Today left stateless, having been gradually stripped of their citizenship rights, they are described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. In order to understand the complexity of this conflict, one must consider how Burma is politically transitioning from military to democratic rule, a process that is open (much as was Afghanistan) to competition for resources by in - ternational and regional players such as the United States, China, India, Is - rael, Japan, and Australia. 1 To be fair, the record of Southeast Asian Muslim countries with Buddhist minorities is also not outstanding. Buddhist minori - ties identified as ethnic groups have faced great discrimination in, among others, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. 2 Imtiyaz Yusuf is the director of the Center for Buddhist-Muslim Understanding, College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University, Salaya, Thailand. His recent publications are A Plane - tary and Global Ethics for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (2016); “Muslim-Buddhist Relations Caught between Nalanda and Pattani,” in Ethnicity and Conflict in Buddhist Societies in South and Southeast Asia , ed. K.M. de Silva (2015) and “Islam and Buddhism,” in Wiley- Blackwell Companion to Interreligious Dialogue , ed. Catherine Cornille (2013). In addition to being a contributor to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Islamic World (2009), the Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2003), the Encyclopedia of Qur’an (2002), and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Modern Islamic World (1995), he was also the special editor of The Muslim World: A Special Issue on Islam and Buddhism 100, nos. [Show full text]
• Media, Reconstruction, and the Future of Germany's Architectural Past McFarland: Attack of the Cyberzombies: Media, Reconstruction, and the Future of… Attack of the Cyberzombies: Media, Reconstruction, and the Future of Germany’s Architectural Past TRANSIT vol. 10, no. 2 Rob McFarland Go to any blockbuster film this season, and you are sure to see some city in peril. Supervillains seem to prefer urban settings for their conquests, at least that is where the superheroes always seem to meet them for a final battle. As the ultimate public space, cities serve as the place where we ritually overcome aliens, comets, volcanoes, earthquakes, and many other real or imagined threats to civilization as we know it. And, as the films 28 Days Later, I am Legend, World War Z and countless video games have made clear, there is no place like a city for a zombie invasion, driven by whatever biohazard thrives on high concentrations of humans. Like the superheroes in the megaplex cinemas, contemporary architects have eagerly attacked the latest hypothetical challenge to the carefully engineered urban environment. Since 2010, the “Zombie Safe House Competition” has invited architects to design buildings that keep urban inhabitants safe from lurching, brain-hungry zombies intent on driving humanity to extinction (“N.A.”). Good design is more than a silver bullet: we can avoid monsters and destruction altogether if we put our trust in well-conceived architecture. Architects and architectural critics not only keep us safe from biohazards, but also from other species of walking dead that might arise in the urban landscape. In his 2013 article in Der Spiegel titled “S.P.O.N.—Der Kritiker: Aufstand der Zombies,” Georg Diez warns that zombies are in the process of taking over Berlin. [Show full text]
• Guilt and the Transformation of Christian-Jewish Relations1 SCJR 15, no. 1 (2020): 1-21 Guilt and the Transformation of Christian-Jewish Relations1 KATHARINA VON KELLENBACH [email protected] St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City, MD 20686 Guilt as Defilement, Pollution, Impurity What happens when attention is shifted from forgiveness to guilt, from recon- ciliation to sin? Guilt and forgiveness, sin and redemption are often mentioned in the same breath, which tends to elide the reality and experience of guilt. The lan- guage of guilt is built around two metaphors that articulate the condition of being guilty as either a pollution, stain, or defilement that must be purified, or as a weight and burden that can be transferred, lifted, born, and carried away. These metaphors are universal and rooted in our bodies. All of the world’s religions offer rituals of purification to alleviate the weight and stain of trespasses against the sacred order and moral boundaries of communities.2 Traditional religious rituals of purification use water (e.g., baptism, Mikveh, Ganges river), blood (e.g., animal sacrifices, Eu- charist), fire and smoke (e.g., fire sacrifice, smudge sticks, sweat lodge) to remove impurities caused by transgressions against the sacred order. Purification rituals provide the procedures by which the symbolic and sacred order is renewed and recreated after violations against God and neighbor. The correlation of washing and spiritual or moral purification is well established in the history of religions, includ- ing Christianity. Social psychologists have recently retested this hypothesis and found that secular contemporaries feel physically dirty when they are reminded of moral wrongdoing. [Show full text]
• Toward a New World Dharma: Reconceptulaizing Citizenship, Community and the Sacred in the Global Age Bond University DOCTORAL THESIS Toward a new world dharma: reconceptulaizing citizenship, community and the sacred in the global age. Carolan, Trevor Award date: 2007 Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. TOWARD A NEW WORLD DHARMA: RECONCEPTUALIZING CITIZENSHIP, COMMUNITY AND THE SACRED IN THE GLOBAL AGE By TREVOR CAROLAN, B.A., M.A. California State, Humboldt A Thesis Submitted to Bond University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences May 2006 2 Summary This dissertation addresses the problem of how, in a global future, humanity is to comprehend the singularity of the place, the biosphere it calls home. Will communities, nations, and the earth itself, for example, be regarded as ‘one’ place in which many live, or as the product of many separate, but linked compositional elements? The ‘many in the One’, or the “One in the many”? From the perspective of International Relations, in a global future will [Show full text]

The Science (and Ethics) of Conservation: Ecological Perspectives

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This chapter aims to cover several topics relevant to conservation and to the question of a valid holistic justice that includes ‘ecojustice’. It is written in the light of both the science of the environmental crisis, but also in the light of the need for a major change by society towards ecocentrism, ecological ethics and ecojustice

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Washington, H. (2020). The Science (and Ethics) of Conservation: Ecological Perspectives. In: Kopnina, H., Washington, H. (eds) Conservation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13905-6_4

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Ethical Principles and Critical Thinking in Conservation

At the largest annual meeting of the American Institute for the Conservatiom of Historic and Artistic Works in 20 years, 1100 conservators met in Philadelphia during the first week in June to discuss ethical principles and critical thinking in conservation. Traveling from as far as Japan, they included staff of major museums (the National Gallery of Art, British Museum), conservators in private practice, and many students in training.   They compared standards historically, across different types of artifact and from one country to another. The meeting included conservation scientists, who analyze materials of artworks and historical artifacts, and conservators specializing in paintings, archives, books, maps, video art, historical computer hardware, artifacts of contemporary performance art, ethnographic work that retains ceremonial use, architecture, fountains, historical toys and even boats.

At the opening session, philosopher James Janowski received a lively response to his discussion of what to do about the Bamiyan  Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban.  All of the fragments were recovered and are being cataloged, but an attempt to reconstruct them from the remains would be a long and extremely costly project, and of questionable value. The Buddhas had both religious and historical value; Janowski suggested that their religious value might be restored, but their historical value was irreparably lost.  As a model for the decision he suggested Dresden’s Frauenkirche ; largely destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII, the remains stood as a ruin for 40 years before the church was restored. He believed the rebuilding successfully revived the church’s iconic, religious importance to Dresden, but was concerned that over time the repairs would become indistinguishable from what remained of the original, distorting the historical record.

In considering Janowski’s example, it may be worth considering that the Japanese have different standards of originality for historic buildings. Since their temples were built of wood, which rots, every piece of the original construction has been replaced, perhaps several times during the history of an old temple. The Japanese accord originality to continuity of function rather than  materials. Another possible route for the Bamyian Buddahs is the one taken in Berlin with the Gedächtniskirche, also bombed during WWII. It remains as an eternal ruin. Having lost its religious value, it stands as a sobering memorial of the war.

Deborah Bede , a textile conservator, raised the question of the status of previous repairs to an object; were they part of the historical evidence that should be retained during treatment?  These might be repairs done by amateurs as well as those by previous conservators. The context usually directs the decision. Works owned by art museums are valued for their beauty, so unsightly or intrusive earlier repairs would probably be removed (although the Harvard University Art Museums own a self portrait of Van Gogh which the artist had given to his friend Gauguin; the crude repair of a tear was retained when the museum determined that it had been made by Gauguin).  A history museum might be more likely to retain repairs, especially if they were performed as part of the artifact’s original use. As example, she showed a pair of farmer’s work pants (above), repaired by his wife to extend their wear. Given the nature of the garment, significant for its history of use rather than aesthetic function or rarity, the home-made patches would surely be retained.  In another session Jane Klinger , conservator at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum , raised the problems posed by her museum’s collection, where objects had layers of meaning.  As artifacts of trauma,  their damage might suggest the romantic interpretation of the objects themselves as victims.

Several sessions addressed conservation questions around digitization of archival and library collections.  Works scanned for digitization must be in condition to tolerate a certain amount of handling. Books and bound archives  may have folded leaves or be bound through text, so scanning necessitates unbinding; this means loss of the original stitching, although the books themselves will receive less handling once digital copies are available. Staff at the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina also described the challenge of scale – specifically, the 2 million manuscripts in the Southern Historical Collection that the library is currently digitizing, which has forced a reconsideration of how much treatment each document would receive.

One of the basic tenets of modern conservation is retention of all the remains of the original artifact, and there will always be debates as to how much loss compensation (e.g. filling-in  missing areas or replacing missing or damaged parts) is acceptable before an artifact becomes a recreation; this would be unacceptable within modern museum standards, although private collectors may have other desires for treating their badly-damaged objects. I wonder, however, whether the strict retention of the non-working remains of, say, a 19 th century  music box, doesn’t risk turning it into  a  relic – important, perhaps, because it was made by the greatest of craftsmen, but no longer able to produce the music that was its raison d’etre. Relics (but not reliquaries) are specifically outside the categories of objects that art museums collect. And what can the non-working carapace of a music box mean to museum visitors?

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UCR welcomes 74 new faculty members

Read their bios and learn about their research interests

UC Riverside welcomed 74 new permanent faculty members for the 2024-2025 academic year who come from a variety of disciplines and research interests.

The new faculty members offer expertise on a wide range of subjects from the economics of immigration to the history of California Indians. Their research covers a wide variety of topics including brain disorders, experimental cosmology, and reducing food safety risks. The new group includes researchers from top universities, a former middle school teacher and grassroots organizer, and a cultural consultant on the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie.  Learn more about the new faculty below:

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Stephen Antonoplis , an assistant professor of psychology, received his doctorate in psychology from UC Berkeley. He specializes in social and personality psychology. His past work has examined personality factors motivating cross-race friendship, how personal income shapes how people think about their futures, and how to best conceptualize and measure socioeconomic status. His current projects include the historical development of class identity in the U.S. and differences in the relationships occupied by different- and same-race contacts in personal networks. He joined the faculty in January.

Alejandra Arce , an assistant professor of psychology, received her doctorate in clinical and community psychology from Georgia State University. Arce conducts strengths- and community-engaged research with immigrant and Black, Indigenous, and people of color youth. Her research aims to advance theoretical and empirical models of resilience and resistance to oppression, create prevention programs, and evaluate community interventions that advance equity efforts.

Olivia Atherton , an assistant professor of psychology, received her doctorate in psychology from UC Davis. Her research intersects between social-personality, health, and developmental psychology. Her primary focus is understanding the associations among self-regulation, sociocultural contexts, and mental and physical health. Her research focuses on diverse populations often underrepresented in psychological science, including Latinx communities and socioeconomically disadvantaged and rural populations.

William Bauer , a professor of history, received his doctorate in history from the University of Oklahoma. An enrolled citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, his research focuses on oral history, labor, and California Indian history. He has authored or co-authored books including most recently “We Are the Land: A Native History of California,” and “California Through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History.” Bauer is the president-elect of the Western History Association. He previously taught at the University of Wyoming and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. At UCR, he will teach classes on California Indian and American Indian history.

Gene Brewer , a professor of psychology, received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Georgia. With an extensive background in cognitive psychology, his research delves into the mechanisms of attention, memory, and executive control in humans. He previously was a faculty member at Arizona State University where he was recognized for his outstanding teaching and mentoring.

Xiao Chen , an assistant professor of history, received his doctorate in history from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He researches Qing and modern Chinese history. His book manuscript explores how Qing colonial practices contributed to the development of a convict labor system that focused on exploiting convicts. Chen has also authored a journal article on how ethnicity became a factor when trying sexual offenses in eighteenth-century Qing legal culture and a book chapter on indigenous Taiwanese skin markings in early modern European and Chinese travel writings. He previously taught at Grinnell College, Iowa.

Kendra Gage , an assistant professor of teaching in history, received her doctorate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a historian of the civil rights movement, sports, Olympics, women in the west, and the American West. Her work centers on uncovering stories of political struggle, oppression, and resistance in the everyday landscapes of people’'s communities. She is working on a book manuscript about Black freedom struggles in California history and co-edited “A People’s Guide to Las Vegas.” She was previously an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Emily Graham , an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages, received her doctorate from the University of Texas at Arlington where she focused on psycholinguistics and phonetics. In psycholinguistics, she explored sentence-level processing while in phonetics she has published work on phonetic imitation of English sibilants in native and non-native speech. Graham is also an active member of the Linguistic Society of America where she serves on committees devoted to linguistic pedagogy and gender equity in linguistics.

Elizabeth Hanna Rubio , an assistant professor of gender and sexuality studies, received her doctorate in cultural anthropology from UC Irvine. Her ethnographic research builds on her work as a community organizer and cultural anthropologist. She is currently completing a book manuscript examining the politics of multiracial coalition-building based on seven years of research into undocumented Korean American organizers. Rubio is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal for the Anthropology of North America and has had work published in Amerasia, Frontiers: A Women’s Studies Journal, and the LA Review of Books.

Donggyu Kim , a professor of economics, received his doctorate in statistics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was previously an associate professor in the College of Business at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, South Korea. His doctoral dissertation was about high-dimensional matrix inferences.

Ajin Lee , an associate professor of teaching in economics, received her doctorate in economics from Columbia University. An applied microeconomist, she studies health, social insurance, and policies targeting disadvantaged populations in the United States. Her research has explored the design of public health insurance programs, the impacts of financial and health shocks to families, and childhood environment on health and well-being. She was previously an assistant professor at Michigan State University and a visiting assistant professor at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

Timothy Petete , an associate professor of teaching in English, received his doctorate in English from the University of Oklahoma. A member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, his teaching and research interests include American literature, Indigenous studies, visual and sonic rhetoric, and memory culture. He is co-editing an issue of Great Plains Quarterly on contemporary Indigenous Pop Art and a book about the FX television series Reservation Dogs.

Heather Rastovac Akbarzadeh , an assistant professor of dance, earned her doctorate in performance studies, with an emphasis on women, gender, and sexuality, from UC Berkeley. Building on two decades as a dance-maker, artistic director, and dramaturg, her research examines diasporic South West Asian and North African communities and their performances undermining colonial ways of seeing the Middle East.  Her monograph-in-progress is titled “Choreographing the Iranian Diaspora: Dance, Spectatorship, and the Politics of Belonging.” Rastovac Akbarzadeh joined the faculty in January. 

Trisha Federis Remetir , an assistant professor of comparative literature and languages, received her doctorate in English and comparative literature from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She specializes in critical Filipino studies, Asian diasporic literature, postcolonial studies, and environmental humanities. Her research focuses on the racial and environmental histories of the Philippine archipelago and other sites of environmental struggle through water. She is working on a book exploring how extractive projects around Philippines waters influenced cultural productions. She was a 2022-2024 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCR.

Cassia Roth , an associate professor of society, environment and health equity, received her doctorate in history from the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on understanding gendered and racialized health inequities in the past and present in the Portuguese-speaking world. She is the author of “A Miscarriage of Justice: Women’s Reproductive Lives and the Law in Early Twentieth-Century Brazil.” She has also published work on topics including the Brazilian feminist scientist Bertha Lutz, the recent history of abortion activism in Latin America, and the history of cesarean sections. Roth will teach on the history of public health and health equity.

Charles Sepulveda , an assistant professor of ethnic studies, received his doctorate in ethnic studies from UC Riverside. He studies California Indian histories, focusing on the mission system’s enslavement of Native peoples and their resistance. Sepulveda’s first book, “Native Alienation: Spiritual Conquest and the Violence of California Missions,” will be published this year. Sepulveda is a board member of the Acjachemen Tongva Land Conservancy and the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy. He previously taught at Cal Poly Pomona, and the University of Utah.

Dylan Shaul , an assistant professor of philosophy, received his doctorate from the University of Toronto. He specializes in 18th- to 19th-century philosophy, mainly German idealism and Jewish philosophy. He is also interested in early modern philosophy, 20th-century European philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. He has published on figures including Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard, on themes including faith, forgiveness, hospitality, love, mourning, recognition, reconciliation, redemption, and repentance. He has also published on tragedy and comedy, from Euripides to Alfred Hitchcock and the Marx Brothers.

Kevin Shih , an associate professor of economics, received his doctorate in economics from UC Davis. A labor economist with expertise in the economics of immigration in the United States, his work has been published in leading economic journals. He previously was at Queens College CUNY, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a research affiliate of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics; the University of California, Davis, Global Migration Center; the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research; and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. He is a special sworn status researcher of the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Daphnie Sicre , an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production, received her doctorate in educational theatre from New York University. A multi-hyphenate writer, director, and dramatug, she shares a deep passion for Black and Latine perspectives in theatre, especially AfroLatinidad. She is co-artistic director of Ammunition Theatre in Los Angeles and co-directs the Candela Fellowship for Latine and Caribbean Playwrights with the Dramatist Guild in New York. She leads diversity, equity, and inclusivity theatre workshops across the country and serves as a culture consultant for Nickelodeon. She also worked on the Emmy-nominated television series “Santiago of the Seas” and the movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Mutant Mayhem.”

Amy Skjerseth , an assistant professor of music, received her doctorate in cinema and media studies from the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on the intersections of music, media, material culture, and technology. A monograph in progress explores how 1960s transistor radios to 2000s vocaloids and 2020s deepfakes influenced musical and visual culture. She is working on a second book called “The Feminist Wall of Sound.” She has published her work across music and media journals and created video essays and podcasts. 

Tabea Springstein , an assistant professor of psychology, received her doctorate in psychological and brain sciences from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research centers on the dynamics of emotion and emotion regulation in everyday life. She is particularly interested in how emotions are experienced and managed across various situations and social contexts and how emotional processes evolve over the adult lifespan. Using experience sampling and passive sensing methods to gather data from individuals in their natural environments, her long-term goal is to uncover individual differences in emotional processes that could lead to targeted interventions to enhance emotional well-being.

Megan Tabaque , an assistant professor of teaching the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production, holds an M.F.A. in playwriting and fiction from the Michener Center for Writers. Tabaque writes to create new mythologies, using pop cultural tropes as accessible entry points. Her work has been produced by the Alliance Theater, The Road Theater, Inner City Arts, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Tofte Lake Center, The Workshop Theater, Seven Devils, Texas State University, and Vanderbilt University. She was a visiting assistant professor at UCR in the winter quarter, previously taught creative writing at Bennington College, and has written for the immersive entertainment company Meow Wolf. 

Cecilia Vasquez , an assistant professor of anthropology, received her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on grassroots responses to sanctuary policies, detention, and care practices in the Inland Empire. Her areas of interest are citizenship and belonging, accompaniment, and migration. She is working on her book manuscript, “Sanctuary i.e.: Meaning and Future of Sanctuary in the Inland Empire.” Her scholarship has led to a collective of poetry workshops, choreographing the folk opera “Canción del Inmigrante,” and community conferences.

Kēhaulani Vaughn , an associate professor of ethnic studies, received her doctorate in ethnic studies from UCR.  A Kanaka ‘Ōiwi scholar, her research engages Pacific Islander and Indigenous feminist theorizations of land, environment, and regeneration. She is working on a book about the trans-Indigenous recognitions between Native Hawaiians living in the U.S. and California Indian tribes. She was previously an assistant professor at the University of Utah where she established the Research Center for Pasifika and Indigenous Knowledges. She co-founded Empowering Pacific Islander Communities which focuses on education, research, and advocacy.

Miriam Venturini , an assistant professor of economics, received her doctorate in economics from the University of Zurich. A political economist and economic historian, her work explores the influence of grassroots organizations on political participation. Her future projects will expand her research focus to labor unions and their impact on the economy and politics.

College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Ellie Armstrong , an assistant professor of in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, received her doctorate in biology from Stanford University. Her research focuses on the evolution of large carnivores and the impacts of intense global change on those sensitive populations and global biodiversity. Her lab uses cutting-edge genomic tools to evaluate the genetic health of at-risk species, as well as the general impacts of captivity.

Trevor Bolduc , an assistant professor of teaching in chemistry, received his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. During his graduate studies, he instructed second-year students in both major and non-major organic chemistry laboratory courses. His research interests include alternative grading to improve student proficiency and reduce equity gaps, and organic chemistry education app development in support of alternative modes to learning.

Eric Barefoot , an assistant professor of geology, received his doctorate in Earth sciences from Rice University. He studies Earth’s landscapes and sedimentary rocks and is broadly interested in how strata accumulate to create an archive of Earth’s history. He uses modern landscapes to better understand sediment transport processes and rock outcrops to learn about Earth’s ancient past. He develops computer models of sedimentary environments to test hypotheses with scaled laboratory experiments.

Bryan Brown , an assistant professor of computational biology, received his doctorate from Duke University and performed his postdoctoral training at Seattle Children’'s Hospital and the University of Washington. His group will focus on studying and manipulating interactions between endogenous bacteria and viruses and the immune system to improve health outcomes in women and infants. 

Xu Cao , an assistant professor of teaching in statistics, received his doctorate in statistics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research focus is on survival analysis and its applications in various fields including healthcare.

Christopher Catano , an assistant professor of botany and plant sciences, received his doctorate in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Washington University in St. Louis.  His research seeks to understand how biodiversity and ecological communities respond to environmental change, and the consequences of these changes for ecosystem functioning and resilience. His research integrates approaches spanning experimental ecology, quantitative modeling, and remote sensing to advance fundamental theory and scale up capacities to guide ecosystem restoration and conservation.

Laura Catano , an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, received her doctorate from Florida International University where she studied marine community ecology. She has taught biology for over a dozen years, most recently at Emory University in Atlanta. She is interested in developing biology curricula with active-learning approaches that promote diversity in science.

Sonali Chaturvedi , an assistant professor of virology, earned her doctorate from UCR. Her group deciphers genetic circuits pivotal in determining viral fates, seeking to leverage an understanding of those design principles to engineer indomitable therapies envisioned to outsmart viral evolution. The group has a particular interest in latency, oncogenesis, developmental disorders associated with DNA viruses and the transmission mechanics of pandemic potential RNA viruses.

Yuzhou Chen , an assistant professor of statistics, received his doctorate in statistics from Southern Methodist University. He is also an adjunct assistant professor in computer and information sciences at Temple University and a visiting research collaborator in electrical and computer engineering at Princeton University.

Steve Choi , an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, received his doctorate in physics from Princeton University. Choi’s research focuses on experimental and observational cosmology, particularly in the development of superconducting detectors for precise observations of the cosmic microwave background, the remnant radiation from the Big Bang. At UCR, Choi plans to develop more sensitive astronomical instrumentation to address fundamental questions about our universe.

Wei-Chun Chou , an assistant professor of statistics, received his doctorate from National Tsing Hua University and completed postdoctoral training at Kansas State University. His research focuses on computational modeling, particularly physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in environmental toxicology and human health. He has pioneered AI methods for predicting chemical toxicity and developed models for nanomedicine and protein interactions to enhance tumor delivery. He serves on the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Luciano Cosme , an assistant professor of entomology, received his doctorate in entomology from Texas A&M University. Before joining UCR, he spent nine years at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate and research scientist, conducting research on mosquitoes. His work focuses on the natural genetic variation of mosquito traits important for arbovirus transmission, photoperiodic diapause, and insecticide resistance. By exploring how genetic variation is generated and maintained in natural populations, he aims to develop innovative strategies for managing mosquito vectors and reducing the burden of mosquito-borne diseases.

Brian Duistermars , an assistant professor of teaching in molecular, cell and systems biology, received his doctorate from UCLA. He grew up on a dairy farm in the Inland Empire and received his bachelor’s degree from UCR. He has studied fly flight and aggression. He previously taught at the Claremont Colleges.

Ahmed El-Moghazy , an assistant professor of microbiology and plant pathology, received his doctorate in developing electrochemical biosensors for food safety applications from a joint program by University of Perpignan in France and Alexandria University in Egypt. Also a UC Cooperative Extension food safety specialist, his research focuses on reducing food safety risks through developing sensors for the detection of potential biological and chemical food contaminants as well as developing antimicrobial matrices to control microbial contamination in food supply chains. 

Tamara Harms , an associate professor of environmental sciences, is an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist. She has studied desert riparian zones and streams, urban ecosystems, and boreal and arctic watersheds.

Bao-Lam Huynh , an assistant professor of nematology, received his doctorate in plant science from the University of Adelaide, Australia. His research is focused on host plant resistance and crop breeding for nematode resistance. He believes strongly in the sustainability benefits of resistant crops; they reduce reliance on pesticides, thus contributing to cleaner air, cheaper production, safer food, and increased demand and consumption.  His research includes germplasm analysis, genetic mapping, gene discovery, and promoting new varieties.

Siting Liu , an assistant professor of mathematics, received her doctorate in mathematics from UCLA. Liu's research focuses on mathematical modeling and computational techniques, particularly in mean-field games and mean-field control models. She develops efficient computational methods that leverage machine learning and mesh-based techniques to solve partial differential equations. Her work spans various applications in data science, machine learning, and engineering, aiming to provide advanced modeling tools and practical solutions to complex, real-world problems.

Xiaoqian Liu , an assistant professor of statistics, received her doctorate in statistics from North Carolina State University. Her research interests broadly encompass statistical machine learning, computational statistics and optimization, and their applications in bioinformatics and cancer biology, including mutation annotation, transcriptomic deconvolution, and tumor heterogeneity and evolution.

Samuel Mann , an assistant professor of inorganic chemistry, received his doctorate in chemistry from UC Irvine. In his research, Mann aims to merge (bio)inorganic chemical principles with protein design to construct new metalloproteins from scratch that help build structure-function relationships for natural metalloproteins and develop design principles for new-to-nature function.

Pedro Martinez , an assistant professor of pedology in the Department of Environmental Sciences, received his doctorate in soil science from Oregon State University. He is a broadly trained soil scientist with an interest in applying fundamental knowledge to investigate soil genesis, landscape evolution, and soil records of past environments. He seeks to continue developing research and teaching activities on soil-landscape evolution models to unravel past and future Earth system reactions to changing environmental conditions.

Filippo Mazzoli , an assistant professor of mathematics, received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Luxembourg. He is interested in geometric structures arising from representations of surface groups relying on tools from different areas of mathematics, such as differential geometry, dynamical systems, and low dimensional topology. He has worked as a research associate and lecturer at the University of Virginia and spent the last academic year at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.

Jeffrey Meyer , an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Mathematics, received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Michigan. His research brings together tools from a broad collection of mathematical areas, such as geometry, linear algebra, and number theory, to solve problems. Much of his recent work has been in spectral and systolic geometry. He also has an interest in researching mathematics education, using cognitive psychology to understand student thinking in mathematics and using those understandings to inform and enhance his courses. He was previously a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma and California State University, San Bernardino.

Adam Norris , an assistant professor of biochemistry, received his doctorate in molecular biosciences from the University of Kansas. His research investigates how RNA splicing is regulated in unique ways in individual neurons. He was previously an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University.

Megan Norris , an assistant professor of biochemistry, received her doctorate in biology from Harvard University. Norris’s group works to understand how RNA localization is established and maintained, specifically in cell protrusions, and how RNA localization affects healthy vertebrate development as well as diseases such as congenital birth defects and cancer. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she showed that RNA localization affects protein binding and cell movement.

Saverio Perri , an assistant professor of environmental sciences, received his doctorate from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi. His research specializes in aquatic organisms in limited water and salt ecosystems. He integrates physical modeling and observation to explore global land-use trends, salinity impacts, and ecohydrology. His work addresses the sustainability of ecosystems under climate stress.

Daniel Petras , an assistant professor of biochemistry, received his doctorate in biochemistry from the Technical University Berlin. His research focuses on environmental metabolomics and developing mass spectrometry-based techniques to study chemical interactions within microbial communities. He founded the Functional Metabolomics Lab as an independent junior research group at the University of Tübingen in Germany, moving the lab to UCR when he joined the faculty.

Sunil Kenchanmane Raju , an assistant professor of botany and plant sciences, received his doctorate from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His research focuses on understanding the evolution of environmental adaptation in crops by utilizing information from stress-adapted wild relatives. Through his organizations, Plant Postdocs and Plant Grad, he provide resources and mentoring support to early-career scientists worldwide, training the next generation of plant scientists.

Crystal Reynaga , an assistant professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, received her doctorate in biomechanics from UC Irvine. Her work investigates questions at the intersection of musculoskeletal physiology, neuromechanics, and movement. Her research program aims to understand animal locomotion in complex environments by using integrative experimental approaches, such as biological materials testing and imaging. Her research spans different levels of biological organization, from microscopy of collagen organization to exploring how tendons passively impact control in whole-body movements. 

Jason Rothman , an assistant professor of teaching in microbiology and plant pathology received his doctorate in microbiology from UCR. He researches microbial ecology in environmental and host-associated systems, and the impacts of active learning and mentorship on student motivation in microbiology and bioinformatics. He previously taught at Cal Poly Pomona.

Emma Rova Danelius , an assistant professor of chemistry, received her doctorate in chemistry from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research is at the interface of chemistry and biology with a special focus on molecular structures and interactions. At UCR, research in her group will aim to solve challenging structures of bioactive compounds beyond the traditional drug space, as well as their protein targets.

Elizabeth Rowen , an assistant professor of entomology, received her doctorate in entomology from Pennsylvania State University. Her work focuses on insect agroecology, specifically the ways in which soil management practices like cover crops, tillage, and fertilization practices can influence insect pests and predators. She is also interested in how livestock management can affect nutrient cycling with dung beetles in pastures and rangelands. She was previously an assistant professor at West Virginia University.

Meredith VanAkcer , assistant professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, received her doctorate in ecology and evolution from Columbia University. Her research integrates wildlife movement ecology, epidemiology, and community ecology to examine how animal hosts respond to global changes like urbanization and deforestation, and the impact on insect-borne and animal-borne disease emergence.

Morgan Weiler , an assistant professor of mathematics, received her doctorate in mathematics from UC Berkeley. Weiler’s work focuses on leveraging symmetry to study the dynamics and embedding properties of low-dimensional symplectic manifolds. At UCR, she plans to develop further computational techniques and to use Reeb dynamics to characterize three-dimensional manifolds.

Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering

Olivia Chen , an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, received her doctorate in electronic engineering from Yokohama National University. She previously served as an associate professor at Kyushu University, focusing on exploratory data analysis for energy-efficient superconducting electronics and neuromorphic computing. Chen’s research interests include developing efficient design tools for superconducting logic families and neural network acceleration. She will begin teaching in January 2025.

Wantong Li , an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, received his doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He directs the Intelligent Computing Architecture & Nanosystem Group. Li’s research spans the areas of emerging computing platforms, reliable and robust integrated circuit design, integrated nanosystems, and algorithm/hardware co-design for edge intelligence. He previously worked at Power Integrations and Micron Technology.

Yaofa Li , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received his doctorate from Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining UCR, he was an assistant professor at Montana State University. Li’s research interest focuses on developing experimental, numerical, and theoretical studies of thermal-fluid problems primarily at microscopic scales with applications in human health, clean energy, and climate change. He is a recipient of an American Chemical Society 2021 Doctoral New Investigator Award and a 2022 National Science Foundation Career Award.

Shahab Vahdat , an assistant professor of bioengineering, received his doctorate in motor neuroscience from McGill University. His areas of research include neural circuits and neurotreatment in ischemic stroke, with a particular focus on brainstem and spinal cord circuitry. He was previously an assistant professor the University of Florida.

Yuanhang Zhu , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received his doctorate in engineering from Brown University. His research focuses on using advanced experimental tools to study fluid-structure interactions, with applications in bio-inspired propulsion and renewable energy harvesting.

School of Business

Hyeik Kim , an assistant professor of finance, received her doctorate in finance from Ohio State University. Her primary research interests include private equity, entrepreneurial finance, and corporate finance. Prior to joining UC Riverside, she was a faculty member at the University of Alberta.

School of Education

Miguel Zavala , an associate professor of teaching, received his doctorate in urban schooling from UCLA. A former middle school teacher and grassroots organizer, Zavala has worked on preparing teachers in the areas of literacy and ethnic studies.  He has co-edited publications including “Raza Struggle and the Movement for Ethnic Studies,” “Rethinking Ethnic Studies,” and Transformative Ethnic Studies in Schools.” He is a lead editor of “Ethnic Studies Pedagogies”, an open access journal committed to critical race, decolonial, and ethnic studies movements.

School of Medicine

Milton Hamblin , an associate professor of teaching and director of the master’s degree program in the biomedical sciences division, received his doctorate in biomedical sciences from Meharry Medical College. His research focuses on vascular biology and vascular remodeling-related pathophysiological diseases, including abdominal aortic aneurysms, vascular lesion formation, and stroke. He was an assistant professor at Xavier University of Louisiana prior to joining UCR. 

Sherif Hassan , a professor of internal medicine and executive associate dean for pre-clerkship medical education, received his medical degree and doctorate from Cairo University. He completed residency training in general medicine and surgery and in clinical and chemical pathology at Cairo University Hospital. He has more than 29 years of medical education experience in the fields of gross anatomy, neuroanatomy, medical imaging, and embryology. He previously taught at the California University of Science and Medicine.

Elizabeth Jacobs , a professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, received her medical degree from UC San Francisco. She trained as a general internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship and a master's degree in public policy at the University of Chicago. Her research focus has been investigating disparities in health care, specifically in minority or marginalized communities. She is recognized as an expert in developing accessible and culturally competent care for diverse populations. She previously served as vice president for research at MaineHealth and director of the MaineHealth Institute for Research.

Andre Obenaus , a professor in the Division of Biomedical Sciences received his doctorate in neurophysiology from the University of British Columbia. His research interests encompass mechanistic studies in a variety of acquired brain injuries, including neurotrauma, stroke, epilepsy, early life adversity, and Alzheimer’s Disease. He utilizes neuroimaging in combination with molecular and cellular approaches to explain disease progression and accepted interventions.

Michelle Porche , a professor of internal medicine and director of clinical faculty research development and scholarly activity, received her doctorate in education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in psychology and human development. She has extensive experience on behavioral health research and interventions for children, adolescents, and adults who experience disparities in healthcare. She previously served in leadership roles at the UC San Francisco School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Naveen Raja , a professor of internal medicine and chief medical officer for UCR Health, received his doctor of osteopathic medicine from Nova Southeastern University and completed an internal medicine residency and rheumatology fellowship at the University of Southern California.  He is board certified in rheumatology and clinical informatics. He has 15 years of executive management experience with a health care emphasis, serving previously as the medical director for population health and accountable care at UCLA Health.

Peter Ureste , an associate clinical professor and residency training director for psychiatry and neuroscience, received his medical degree at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and completed his residency in psychiatry at the University of Southern California, followed by a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at UCSF. He received a master’s degree in academic medicine from USC. He was a faculty member at UC San Francisco for seven years, working with pre-medical students, medical students, and residents as a clinician educator.

Joy Xiang , an assistant professor in the Division of Biomedical Sciences, received her doctorate in bioengineering from Stanford University. Her research focuses on understanding protein-RNA interactions and networks in virus infections, and developing novel nucleic acid based and RNA-targeting therapeutics. Her lab tackles the complexities underlying disease-causing virus-host interactions.

School of Public Policy

Wei Kang , an assistant professor of public policy, received her doctorate from Arizona State University. Her research interests include spatial data science, housing, and spatial inequality. Kang is also the core developer of the open-source Python spatial analysis library, PySAL. Currently, she is conducting research focused on understanding the outcomes of affordable housing policies, such as COVID emergency rental assistance programs, low-income housing tax credit programs, and inclusionary zoning programs, as well as enhancing local spatial statistics and spatiotemporal statistics.

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