We’re honored to present some very accomplished and inspiring speakers for the Transformation without Apocalypse symposium, February 14-15. We’ll be sharing more information about them in the New Year, but for now here are brief bios to introduce them.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER BIOS
TIM DECHRISTOPHER
Tim DeChristopher was arrested for sabotaging a 2008 auction of Utah public lands by registering and bidding without the intention to pay. His action became an inspiration to others concerned about the environmental crisis, as well as the story for a documentary, Bidder 70. Together with other activists, he formed Peaceful Uprising, a volunteer-based climate action group committed to defending a livable future from the fossil fuel industry. Tim was released from prison in April 2013 and currently attends Harvard Divinity School. www.peacefuluprising.org
URSULA K. LE GUIN
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in 1929 in Berkeley, and lives in Portland, Oregon. As of 2013, she has published 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, 12 books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many honors and awards including Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, and PEN-Malamud. Her most recent publications are Finding My Elegy and The Unreal and the Real. www.ursulakleguin.com
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
Kim Stanley Robinson is a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Themes in his writing often explore environmentalism, science, and humanism. He is the author of the bestselling Mars Trilogy and many novels, including Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and Antarctica–for which he was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation as part of their Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program. www.kimstanleyrobinson.info
KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE
Kathleen Dean Moore is a philosopher, nature writer, public speaker, and defender of all that is wet and wild. She is also a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and co-founder and Senior Fellow of the Spring Creek Project. Moore speaks widely to audiences of interested citizens, scientists, church groups, etc. about the need for a moral response to climate destabilization and species loss. Her newest book is MORAL GROUND: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. www.riverwalking.com
ROB NIXON
Rob Nixon is the Rachel Carson Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches environmental studies, postcolonial studies, creative nonfiction, African literature, world literature, and twentieth century British literature. He is the author of Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond; Dreambirds: the Natural History of a Fantasy; and Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. www.english.wisc.edu/rdnixon/
SUSANA ALMANZA
Susana Almanza is the Co-Director of People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER), and is one of three co-chairs for the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. She has served on numerous committees including the EPA’s Title VI Implementation Advisory Committee and the City of Austin Environmental Board, and she is a former Planning Commissioner for the City of Austin. She resides in East Austin, Texas. http://www.poder-texas.org/index.html
AMY FRANCESCHINI
Amy Franceschini is concerned with notions of community, sustainable environment, and the perceived conflict between humans and nature. Her work manifests itself on- and offline in the form of dynamic websites, installations, open-access laboratories, and educational formats that challenge the cultural, social, and economic systems we live in. Amy founded Futurefarmers in 1995 and Free Soil in 2004. She has received the Artadia Award, the Eureka Fellowship, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s SECA Art Award. www.futurefarmers.com
JOANNA MACY
Joanna Macy is an eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Her work addresses psychological and spiritual issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of ecological awareness, and the fruitful resonance between Buddhist thought and contemporary science. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, she has created a theoretical framework for personal and social change, as well as a powerful workshop methodology for its application. www.joannamacy.net
CAROLYN FINNEY
Carolyn Finney is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where her work explores how difference, identity, representation, and power play a significant role in determining how people negotiate their daily lives in relation to the environment. Finney serves on a number of national boards and committees including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Orion Magazine, and the Center for Whole Communities. ourenvironment.berkeley.edu/people_profiles/carolyn-finney/
SARAH VAN GELDER
Sarah van Gelder is the co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine, for which common topics include the new economy, climate solutions, alternatives to prisons, food, water, peacemaking, health care, and happiness. She also co-founded Suquamish Olalla Neighbors, which builds bridges between Native and non-Native residents of the Port Madison Reservation, and co-led a statewide effort to return the home of Chief Seattle to the Suquamish Tr