The Fall of the Wild

Minteer Ben A.:
Ben A. Minteer is professor of environmental ethics and conservation and the Arizona Zoological Society Endowed Chair in the School of Life Sciences at ASU, a position established by the Maytag family when they founded what is now the Phoenix Zoo. His work grapples with two big questions: What obligations do we have toward species and wildlands in a rapidly changing and increasingly human-shaped environment? And how can a better understanding of the American conservation tradition enhance our efforts to secure a biologically and culturally rich environmental future? His writing is grounded in the tradition of American Pragmatism, especially its moral, scientific, and civic traditions. He is also a Fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature (Chicago).
Professor Minteer has authored or co-authored more than 70 articles, essays, and book chapters and his work has appeared in Science, Nature, PNAS, BioScience, Conservation Biology, Environmental Ethics, Slate, and Earth Island Journal among other outlets. He has also published many books, including After Preservation: Saving American Nature in the Age of Humans (University of Chicago Press) and The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America (MIT Press). His next book, The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation (University of Chicago Press), will appear in the spring of 2018.Ben A. Minteer holds the Arizona Zoological Society Endowed Chair at Arizona State University, where he is a professor of environmental ethics and conservation in the School of Life Sciences. He has authored or edited many books, including The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Environmental Thought in America (2006) and The Ark and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation (2018).