Environmental Ethics and the Role of the Farmer: Steward, Mediator, Entrepreneur? Charles Blatz
| Date/Time: | Monday, 06 Mar 2006 at 7:00 pm |
|---|---|
| Location: | Sun Room, Memorial Union |
| Cost: | Free |
| Contact: | |
| Phone: | 515-294-9934 |
| Channel: | Lecture Series |
| Categories: | Lectures |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Blatz writes and teaches in the area of critical reasoning. He has completed two consecutive terms as a University of Toledo master teacher and developed a special course in critical thinking which allows students to explore such issues as urban poverty, population levels and environmental degradation, as well as participatory democratic environmental decision making. Blatz's first course in environmental ethics is required for students in The University of Toledo's environmental studies programs. Other recent teaching has included courses titled: Community and Ethics; Idealism, Ecology and Ethics; Framing Cultures, Building Communities (the first year Humanities 2000 core course); and Telling Stories, Valuing Lives (the second year Humanities 2000 core course).
A past panelist and reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Blatz has developed and directed major NEH collaborative projects in critical thinking and secondary education curriculum renewal. Wyoming's Critical Thinking Project, $139,000 was a state-wide project in 1985-86 devoted to the infusion of critical thinking into regular secondary school classes. Humanities 2000 (co-developed and directed with Roger Ray in History), $210,000 1995--97 (with continuing support from the Clement O. Miniger Memorial Foundation), is an ongoing regional project now linking four different school districts and eight individual secondary school buildings with The University of Toledo. Blatz has been a reviewer for the National Science Foundation's program Ethics and Values in Science and Technology, and the program in social science methodology. Blatz was chair of The University of Toledo Department of Philosophy from academic year 1988-89 through academic year 1995-96. Currently Blatz is Associate Director of The University of Toledo Humanities Institute.
Blatz is a founding and continuing board member of the International Development Ethics Association, an interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners working on the ethical dimensions of development worldwide. Some of his publications fall in this area and have appeared in Revista de Filosofia de Universidad de Costa Rica, Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, and Agriculture and Human Values. Themes raised in these articles have also been pursued in various book chapters. Blatz also has published in Educational Theory, Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, The Journal of Education and Economic Change, Between the Species, Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, and The American Philosophical Quarterly (a paper in their monograph series). Blatz is the editor and a contributing author of Ethics and Agriculture, An Anthology on Current Issues in World Context, University of Idaho Press. He has presented over 60 papers at professional meetings, institutes, and conferences in six countries. His two most recent paper publications are: "Transitional Justice and the [Re-]Construction of Critical Agency," Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, Autumn 1998, Vol. XVIII, No. 1, pp. 22-43; and "The Spirit of Critical Thinking and the Possibility of Cross-Cultural Criticism," Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, Winter 1997, Vol. XVII, No. 2, pp. 32-52. He is currently working on a book provisionally titled, Ethics, Community, and Sustainability: An Investigation of Responsible Agency.