Faculty Seminar in Central Europe:
"Central Europe's Environmental Crisis: Scientific, Social, and Cultural Perspectives"
Summer 2003

Seminar participants

Christopher Brooks teaches political science at St. Olaf College, specializing in democratic transitions and political theory. His dissertation from Indiana University was on "Charter 77 and the Legacy of Antipolitics." During the seminar he was interested in examining the role of grass-roots environmental movements in the Czech Republic on the development of environmental policy and politics.

Linda Dybas is Watson-Bartlett Professor of Biology at Knox College, where she has taught since 1977. Her doctorate in human biology is from the University of Ulm in Germany. In addition to her specialization in insects and invertebrate immunity, she designed a contemporary issues course that integrates the political, social, cultural and economic concerns while addressing today's environmental issues. In the seminar she was interested in a variety of issues regarding preservation of natural ecosystems, water contamination, agricultural issues, and public transportation.

David Ellison is an assistant professor of political science at Grinnell College. He received his doctorate from University of California, Los Angeles, where he specialized in Comparative Politics, Methodology, and European Integration. His dissertation was "Entangling Fortunes: The EU, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Eastern Enlargement." While in Central Europe he wanted to look at the impact and costs of adopting EU environmental legislation on the Czech Republic.

Martin Farrell is Professor of Politics and Government and Coordinator of the Global Studies Program at Ripon College. He is working on manuscripts on "Nationalism and Democracy in China: Competing or Complementary Forces?" and "Power and Truth: Peril and Promise in the New Political Era." He is active in local government, as well as the Global Partners Project Central Europe/Russia Task Force. In Central Europe he wanted to examine the progress that has been made in the Czech Republic in dealing with the daunting environmental problems inherited from the 40-year Communist regime and the Soviet military occupation.

Michael Gunter teaches political science at Rollins College, concentrating in international relations and non-governmental organizations. His book, Building the Next Ark: How NGOs Work to Protect Biodiversity, will come out this spring. He hoped that the seminar will help him improve a course he teaches on the political economy of sustainable development course by adding a new Central European dimension to it.

Clifford Harris is a professor of Chemistry at Albion College, concentrating on organic chemistry; he also teaches courses for non-majors, including "The Crucial Generation," a first year seminar, and "Chemistry That Matters." Professionally he is interested in Green Chemistry and sustainable technologies. He wanted to use the seminar to improve both Albion's Capstone course in Green Chemistry and his own research efforts in sustainability studies.

Pamela Hollie is an associated scholar at Kenyon College and director of the NonProfit-Management.network. For the network, she has, among other things, designed a nonprofit management course and a national biodiversity planning project which she will be teaching this spring at Charles University in Prague. She has also served as an associate director for The Nature Conservancy, worked for the Asia Foundation, directed a journalism fellowship at Columbia, and written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. She hoped that her participation in the seminar would greatly enhance her partnerships with professors in Kenyon's environmental studies program and its law and society discipline.

Myron Levine (seminar facilitator) is Sleight Endowed Professorship in Leadership Studies and Professor of Political Science at Albion College. His teaching concentrates on American government and European politics. He has directed the ACM/GLCA Central Europe Studies program and taught at the University of Latvia in Riga, American University, and St. Ambrose College. He has written books on urban politics and American presidential campaigns. He is currently doing research on urban renewal in Berlin.

Timothy Lincoln is professor of Geology and Director of the Institute for the Study of the Environment at Albion College. His teaching in geology includes courses in physical geology, oceanography, ore deposits, field methods, groundwater, and geochemistry as well a first year seminar entitled Water: Science and Policy. For the Environmental Institute he also teaches "Introduction to the Environment" and coordinates the "Ecology and Environmental Issues" field course. While in Central Europe he wanted to develop material for the former course.

Marilyn Loveless is Associate Professor of Biology at the College of Wooster, where she teaches ecology, evolution, and population biology. She chairs the College Environmental Task Force, and has been involved for 15 years with the recycling program on campus. Her current research interests are in the areas of natural resource management, habitat protection, biodiversity inventory, and land use planning; she hopes to pursue these interests while in Central Europe. While her current research is centered in Latin America, she hopes to expand her interests in forestry to Europe for her next sabbatical.

Jonathan Maskit is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Denison University. He specializes in Continental philosophy (Kant-present) and environmental ethics. He is currently preparing a manuscript, Traces of Kant in the Later Heidegger. While in Central Europe he wanted to continue work on a project he began last year while at the University of Potsdam in Germany, addressing the global trade in food from the standpoint of public and environmental health.

Frank McAndrew is a professor of psychology at Knox College, where he has taught since 1979. He has also taught in South Africa, and was the founding director of Knox's Environmental Studies Program. His research interests include Environmental Psychology, Evolutionary Social Psychology, Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Nonverbal Communication. His latest book is the forthcoming Adaptation and Human Nature: An Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology. He brought to the seminar a strong background in the social science of environmental problems that others might find useful when examining the environmental issues facing Central Europeans.

Hassan Nejad is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Antioch College, where is also the outgoing acting dean of the faculty. A native of Iran, he has also taught at Tehran University, Arkansas State University, and Southern Illinois University. He has taught in almost every area of political science, while his research has concentrated in international rights and law, particularly in the Middle East. His classes often look at environmental issues in Central Europe; he feels that Americans can learn from the European experience.

Floyd Sandford is a professor of biology at Coe College; soon after his arrival in 1971 he helped to establish an environmental studies curriculum. His teaching has covered the discipline, and has included a great deal of field work. In Central Europe he wanted to look at environmental education, broadly defined, meeting with both college-level and secondary and elementary teachers, and also officials or representatives of environmental organizations or groups, to determine what they view as the most serious/significant environmental issues confronting their society and how they are working to address these issues with their students or fellow citizens.

Rand Smith is Irvin L. and Fern D. Young Presidential Professor of Politics at Lake Forest College, where his teaching includes Politics of Western Europe and the European Union, Politics of Latin America, U. S. Energy and Environmental Policy, and International Energy Issues. His most recent book is The Left's Dirty Job: The Politics of Industrial Restructuring in France and Spain. In Central Europe he wanted to look at the restructuring of basic industries such as coal and steel that are both economically inefficient and environmentally destructive.

Carol Summers is associate professor of history at the University of Richmond, where she concentrates in African history. Her new book is Colonial Lessons: Africans' Education in Southern Rhodesia, 1918-1935. She has a background in biology, and ongoing interest in comparative environmental history, environmental issues and "development", and green politics. While in the region she wanted to learn as much as she can about the intersections of environmental crisis, economic change, and political legitimacy in post-Cold War contexts.

Michael Svec is an associate professor of education at Furman University, with a concentration in science education. He served as the physics author for Science Links, a ninth-grade general science textbook series. His goal for the seminar was to better understand changes in the Czech educational system using environmental education as a case study and to apply that knowledge to undergraduate and graduate courses in education.