CFP: Environment, Science, and Society

“I want the truth, marrow-bone truth, and I find the intimations of it whenever I am alive to things, even the most familiar and commonplace things, for the wilderness I take them to comprise.” —Henry Bugbee, The Inward Morning

“Just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer […] The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf’s job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain.” —-Aldo Leopold, “Thinking Like a Mountain”

“We have not yet encountered any god who is as merciful as a man who flicks a beetle over on its feet.” —Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 

“We have been winning, to our inestimable loss, a competition against our own land and our own people.” ―Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food

Environment, Science, and Society Graduate Philosophy Conference

LOCATION: East Lansing, Michigan, March 27th-28th 2026

Michigan State University Department of Philosophy

CfA: Early-career scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates,

It is our distinct pleasure to invite abstract submissions to the Michigan State University Department of Philosophy Graduate Philosophy Conference, which will be hosted at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, on March 27th and 28th, 2026. The theme for this year’s conference will be Environment, Science, and Society.

Academic interest in the confluence of the environment, science, and society has proliferated since the latter 20th century. We seek to bring together philosophical, humanistic, and interdisciplinary perspectives on the interplay of science, technology, and society, as well as the environment, wilderness, and food. We construe ‘environment’ in an encompassing sense, involving both the human and nonhuman world, multiple senses of Nature/nature, and various disciplinary approaches to questions including, but not limited to, wilderness, environmental justice, ecofeminism, or environmental history. Likewise, we welcome contributions concerned with science in a broad sense, including the broader lens of science, medicine, and technology. We understand science as both a source of destruction and a potential source of hope in alleviating the environmental crises that beset us. Crucially, we are interested in contributions that explore the relation of the environment and science to society, such as through food ethics, philosophy of agriculture, conservationism, etc.

Potential topics of interest include:

• Interactions between science, technology, and society

• Philosophy of technology

• History of Science, Medicine, and Technology

• Environmental philosophy

• Food ethics

• Philosophy of agriculture

• Conservationism

• Wilderness and rewilding

• Environmental justice

• Environmental history

• Ecofeminism

• Environmental Critical Theory

Panel proposals are also welcome.

Keynote speaker: Christopher J. Preston (University of Montana)

Important Dates: Abstracts of 300-500 words may be submitted via Google Forms by January 9th, 2026. Advanced undergraduates may submit full papers of 2-2,500 words via Google Forms by January 9th, 2026. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be communicated in late January by email. Additional inquiries may be directed to [email protected].

Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2rdDQjMkJL70dzbMhskr5Zn_adRuBHgyt0Ke6tPoiQrBc4Q/viewform 

Sincerely,

Jessie Barth, Sean Cleary, and Erik Lynch

Conference Organizers