New Series: Climate Matters

The Blog of the APA has developed a new series, Climate Matters. Research Editor H.L. Schmidt sat down with Series Editors Rebecca Millsop and Eugene Chislenko to discuss the new series’ scope, goals, and place in the APA Blog family.

Thank you very much for the invitation to co-edit this series! We’re very excited to see what will come of it.

Tell us more about the series.

Climate Matters is a monthly series of short articles by both established and early career philosophers focused on connections between climate change and the discipline of philosophy. We will feature accessible discussions of philosophical approaches to various aspects of climate change, but also discussion of ways in which the practice of philosophy will need to adapt as part of an adequate global response to climate change.

What are the goals of the series?

Our goal is to foster discussion of climate change among philosophers as a field, and to combine theoretical discussions with practical ones about the institutions of philosophy. And frankly, it has become clear that social movements are essential to an adequate response to climate change. We hope this series helps build our own profession’s corner of a broader climate movement, by encouraging philosophers to think through and advocate for sustainable practices in research, teaching, and service in philosophy.

What led you to choose the title Climate Matters for this series?

Thank you Heidi for the name! We like it for three reasons:

(1) Climate does matter, and that’s worth saying.
(2) There are so many different matters related to climate change, which increasingly affects everything.
(3) Philosophers are getting used to thinking about department climate, and many departments have climate committees. “Climate” can suggest department climate. One of our series goals is to highlight connections between climate change and issues related to department climate; the marginalized populations greatly overlap, and raise related concerns about racism and other forms of injustice.

What inspired you to work on this?

Two years ago, we founded Philosophers for Sustainability, a growing international network of philosophers working to shift our field and the world toward sustainable practices. (We talk about that at more length in our Blog of the APA interview with Jeremy Bendik-Keymer.) We have been inspired by working with so many incredible people and by their successes in shifting institutional practice, from professional guidelines to task forces to teaching to catering and travel. We jumped at the chance to co-edit this blog series, to give more philosophers a chance to share some of their climate-related experience in research and in practice.

What inspired you to work on this right now?

The damaging effects of the climate crisis are already felt across the world, though perhaps not as persistently in many of the communities where many APA members live and work. It’s important that we have these conversations to raise awareness, share resources and ideas, and start to organize together as a profession against these negative effects. The best time to start this work and have these conversations was yesterday, but we are still very excited to get this going right now, at a time of growing momentum and opportunity in the US for bolder, more ambitious responses to climate change.

How did you come to do this kind of Philosophy?

The focal point of our work together has been to organize the profession of philosophy around climate change. Philosophers are well positioned to address the crisis in a multitude of ways, yet the activities of our profession cause a lot of damage. Amelioration must go beyond publishing in journals and presenting at conferences, and make its way into our professional relationships, departmental decisions, and institutional structures. We aim to push along, and get others involved in, this exciting and important work.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered in this work?

There are a vast number of philosophers who are concerned about climate change, concerned about their children and their students’ futures, open to doing something about climate change in practice and unsure how to start. That makes our field like a powder keg, but the good kind. Discussion and suggestions related to climate change and philosophy have a large potential audience of people who are increasingly ready to take good ideas and run with them. 

Why is the APA Blog a good home for this?

The APA brings together philosophers across the US and internationally, and has become a leader in offering resources and discussion aimed at justice within our field. The Blog of the APA is an especially good venue for making philosophers’ contributions accessible and broadly available. We think that’s perfect for a discussion of climate change, as a philosophically complex issue in which everyone has an immediate, personal stake.

How this series is located with respect to other philosophical research or other research posts the Blog has published. In other words, what perspectives does the series have, and how is that similar/different from other research?

This series aims to bring philosophers together around one of the most pressing issues of our time. We think that fits well with the Blog’s increasing focus on issues of justice and inclusion in several of its series. On the other hand, Climate Matters will cut across and integrate elements of the Blog’s other series in ways we think will be useful. Climate change is a black issue, a women’s issue, a diversity and inclusiveness issue, a teaching issue, a service issue, a research issue, a public philosophy issue, a work/life balance issue, and an issue of special concern to students and early career philosophers. We look forward to highlighting those connections.

Could you say a bit more about your method in curating the series?

Our plan is to cover both theory and practice. As philosophers, we often tend towards theory, but the truth is that the climate crisis calls for action. For this reason, we plan on prioritizing the practical application of philosophy as well as contributions that discuss how we can best utilize our skills and profession in responses to the climate crisis. We also want to emphasize that this blog is not an environmental philosophy blog (though we certainly welcome environmental philosophers to contribute). Phenomenologists, epistemologists, historians, and all types of philosophers have and can contribute to this important discussion. 

If you are interested in contributing to this series, please reach out to us at philosophersforsustainability@gmail.com with a brief explanation of your idea. We’d love to hear from you!

Who will be interested in the series?

Everyone! Or at least, all philosophers have a vested interest. We love one of the opening sentences in the Philosophers for Sustainability guidelines that are now part of the APA Good Practices Guide: “Like academic freedom and academic integrity, sustainability is a part of fair institutional practice and of nurturing the next generations of philosophers and members of society at large.” As a central crisis of our time, climate change in particular is increasingly affecting all of our lives and work, and we all could use more opportunities to think through our responses to it.

Eugene Chislenko

Eugene Chislenko is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Temple University. His main interests are in moral philosophy and moral psychology, and in related topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, and the history of philosophy. He founded Philosophers for Sustainability with Rebecca Millsop in 2019.

Rebecca Millsop

Rebecca Millsop is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Rhode Island. Her research interests include scholarship of teaching and learning, philosophy of art and aesthetics, and a variety of topics within applied ethics. She founded Philosophers for Sustainability with Eugene Chislenko in 2019.

H. L. Schmidt

H. L. Schmidt currently holds the Becker Fellowship. She has worked as an editor or writer at multiple publications, including Qu, City Magazine, and The Verve. Schmidt is SOPHIA’s Chapter Development Officer and is a doctoral student in the University of Kentucky’s Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Ph.D. program in Philosophical and Cultural Inquiry, where she focuses on how we develop, communicate, and sustain a personal moral code. She founded the Roanoke chapter of SOPHIA, has presented at a number of conferences, including Philosophy of the City’s 2019 Conference where she presented her research on the role of the public library in a just city.  She is part of the leadership of the Philosophers for Sustainability group, where she co-leads the Social Media & Outreach team. At the APA Blog, she edits the Research beat, conducts interviews for the Recent Book Spotlight, and oversees the Diversity & Inclusion beat, which features the Women in Philosophy and Black Issues series. She hosted the Civic Connections podcast featuring conversations with local public policy officials about justice and public affairs.  She holds a Master’s in the Humanities from Hollins University where she studied ethics and public policy under Lawrence C. Becker and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. Her interests include practical ethics, public policy, existentialism, and utilitarianism. You can follow her on Twitter @theheidifeed.