Religious Studies Speaker Series: Susan P. Bratton Ph.D.

The Religious Studies Speaker Series, Oakton’s Environmental Studies Concentration, and Oakton’s STEM Scholars Program Present:

Susan P. Bratton, Ph.D.

2:00PM-3:30PM, Tuesday October 29. Register here to attend via Zoom — or, if you are on the Des Plaines campus, you can join a viewing party in the Student Center.

“From Salmon Conservation to Plastic Trash: Religion and the Environmental Ethics of Watershed Protection”

For millennia, the world’s religions have protected aquatic resources such as salmon stocks and water critical to community irrigation systems. This presentation explains how religious rituals, codes, community organization, and sacred spaces in pre-modern societies have contributed to the management and health of aquatic ecosystems. While the role of religion is changing as we tackle the consequences of industrialization and globalization, religion continues to serve as a foundation for environmental activism and watershed care.

Susan Power Bratton, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita, in the Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University. She began her career in 1975 as a research scientist for the US National Park Service, where she served as director of the Uplands Research Laboratory, and of USNPS Research Cooperative at the Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia. She was chair of the Baylor University Department of Environmental Science (formerly Environmental Studies) from 2001 to 2011 and initiated and directed the Baylor all-campus Undergraduate Research Program from 2010 to 2018. Retiring from Baylor in 2023, she remains active in scholarly writing and research and is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. Her recent books include The Spirit of the Appalachian Trail: Community, Environment, and Belief on a Long Distance Hiking Path. (University of Tennessee Press, 2012) which received recognition as a “Choice Outstanding Academic Title” of 2013; 2016. CHURCHScape: Megachurches and the Iconography of the Environment (Baylor University Press, 2016); and Religion and the Environment: An Introduction (Taylor and Francis and Routledge, 2021, the first chapter of which can be read here). She is currently co-editing the Handbook for Religion and the Environment, with Ibrahim Ozdemir and Stephanie Boddie, with publication expected in 2025. Other recent and current projects include book chapters on climate change and coastal Texas ecosystems, Teilhard de Chardin and spiritual experience in nature, the religious history of American wilderness, Christian environmental ethics and marine pollution, and the intersection of religion and environmental education in botanical gardens. A partial list of her publications can be viewed here.

The Religious Studies Speaker Series is made possible by a grant from Oakton’s Educational Foundation. This event is co-sponsored by both Oakton’s Environmental Studies Concentration and STEM Scholars Program.