Earth Day Lecture

Since a number of "Animal Ethics" readers reside in the northern Illinois area, I thought I would call your attention to an exciting lecture that is taking place on Northern Illinois University's campus. This Earth Day, Sunday, April 22, at 6:00 p.m., Kathie L. Jenni, Ph.D. (who has occasionally posted comments on this blog) will present a lecture entitled “The Best Kept Environmental Secrets: How We Can Hurt or Help the Planet Every Day.” The lecture will take place in Wirtz Auditorium on NIU’s Main Campus in DeKalb, IL. Dr. Jenni is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Redlands in Redlands, California, where she has taught for the past 18 years. She specializes in Environmental Ethics, Human-Animal Ethics, and Moral Psychology. Some of her notable publications include: “The Power of the Visual,” “Western Environmental Ethics,” “Vices of Inattention,” and “The Moral Responsibilities of Intellectuals.”

Professor Jenni made her debut appearance in DeKalb in September 2002 when she presented her paper “The Power of the Visual” at the Northern Illinois Ethic Consortium’s inaugural conference Ethics in Contemporary Life. The NIU community is fortunate to have such a dynamic lecturer return to NIU.

Professor Jenni has won numerous teaching awards including: an Outstanding Teaching Award at Redlands, a prize for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities from the Graves Awards Foundation at Pomona College, and an Innovative Teaching Award for her Community Service Learning course on human-animal ethics at Redlands. I am fortunate to have seen Professor Jenni lecture on a number of occasions and have always found her lectures to be thoughtful, provocative, and insightful, while remaining readily accessible in terms of their content. Her coming Earth Day lecture couldn't be more timely in light of our increasing awareness of global warming and other human-induced negative impacts on the environment.

Professor Jenni’s Earth Day Lecture is co-sponsored by NIU’s Department of Philosophy and NIU’s Vegetarian Education Group [VEG]. VEG is a non-profit student organization dedicated to educating the NIU community and surrounding area about the multi-dimensional benefits (human health, environmental preservation, animal welfare, and personal enrichment) of plant-based nutrition. More information about VEG can be found here.

Professor Jenni’s lecture is FREE and open to the public. If you are in the area and have an interest in animals and the environment, I hope you will join us for this special Earth Day event.