Marion Hourdequin

Philosophers Fight Climate Change Series

This interview series highlights the exciting ways philosophers engage the public to combat a central crisis of our time. 

Marion Hourdequin is professor of philosophy at Colorado College and is currently vice president of the International Society for Environmental Ethics. 

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What type(s) of civically engaged or public philosophy do you do?

My philosophical work has always been connected to thinking about my own and others’ lived experience and engagement in the world. I came to philosophy through biology, where I was wrestling with questions about relationships between science and society and the civic responsibilities of ecologists and environmental scientists. Throughout my career, I’ve tried to draw on my academic and interdisciplinary training to bridge divides between theory and practice, and between classroom learning and “real life,” and I think it’s also important to challenge these conceptual dichotomies. Practices and institutions clearly shape our understandings of the world, and vice versa. Philosophy gives us a lens to think about these interrelationships, and how thinking and acting in the world can contribute positively to the development of more just and sustainable societies.

My civically engaged work cuts across a variety of domains, but I think I’m often most effective working at the intersection of science, philosophy, and policy. In grad school, I helped organize a forum on scientists’ roles in environmental policy, featuring publicly engaged ecologists at Duke University, where I was a student. About a decade ago, I worked with geographer David Havlick on a collaborative project focused on the social and ethical dimensions of ecological restoration at former military sites. Many of these sites provide valuable wildlife habitat and are managed as National Wildlife Refuges, but they also harbor unexploded ordnance, chemical or radioactive residues, and contaminated soil and water. This project brought us into conversation with wildlife refuge managers as well as with members of broader publics, including refuge visitors and residents of nearby communities. More recently, I served on a 16-member study committee for the National Academy of Sciences, helping to write a report that offers guidance for transdisciplinary research on solar geoengineering, along with research governance recommendations. I’ve written about that report—and about climate ethics more broadly—for The Conversation, which is a nonprofit news organization that supports public communication of academic work. Stories in The Conversation are frequently picked up by newspapers and other mainstream news outlets, so they’re a great way for faculty to connect with broader publics.

Give an example of a successful project.

I currently serve as Vice President of the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), and I’m really excited about the work we’re doing to support and promote publicly engaged philosophy. For example, we partnered with Philosophers for Sustainability to offer a workshop at the 2020 Eastern APA focused on Sustainability in Philosophy, and we sponsor an annual award—the Andrew Light Award for Public Philosophy—that recognizes and honors publicly-engaged philosophy work. As part of ISEE’s mentoring and peer networking initiative, Simona Capisani (now a Climate Futures Initiative postdoc at Princeton) and I organized a fall 2020 webinar on engaged and inclusive pedagogies in environmental philosophy. The webinar featured four great speakers—Ben Hole (University of the Pacific), Clair Morrissey (Occidental College), Rebeka Ferreira (Green River College), and Chris Cuomo (University of Georgia)—who are doing wonderful community-engaged philosophy work with students. Although they each approach engaged and inclusive pedagogies from slightly different angles, together their teaching includes ecological fieldwork and interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists, local community service projects, and decolonial approaches to environmental ethics. This fall, Simona and I are working with the Public Philosophy Network and the Climate Futures Initiative at Princeton to develop another webinar focused on collaborations that link philosophy, science, and environmental policy. In the future, we hope to offer a webinar focused on how philosophers working on climate and environmental issues can extend their writing to reach public audiences, whether through short form op-eds or longer popular articles and books. More generally, those of us involved with ISEE are thinking a lot about how we can support civically-engaged teaching and research in philosophy—and how we can ensure that this work is valued and recognized in our discipline and in academia more generally.

What motivates you to do this work?

There are a lot of issues I’m deeply concerned about, and as philosophers, we have skills that can be valuable in thinking through complex issues from multiple perspectives, engaging in thoughtful dialogue with others, understanding complexity and nuance, and laying out arguments clearly. I want to engage where I can, in constructive and collaborative ways.

In what ways does the work inform your research (or vice-versa)?

In my mind, my research is deeply connected to my broader civic engagement. I often use my writing to think through issues that trouble me: What should I do about global climate change? Is it ok for scientists in the Global North to set the parameters of discussions around climate engineering? At what point should a person withdraw from a corrupt system, and under what circumstances does it make sense to work within problematic institutions in hope of changing them from inside? My philosophical work is grounded in efforts to consider how we might understand and act in the world, individually and collectively, in ways that enable humans and other living beings to flourish and relate well to one another.

In what ways does the work inform your teaching (or vice-versa)?

My public philosophy work informs my teaching—and vice versa—in many ways. In my Environmental Ethics class, I ask students to connect our readings and discussions to their own values and actions, and where I can, I integrate a service learning component. For example, we’ve worked with Groundwork Denver, an environmental justice organization, to help share with Denver residents information about free energy efficiency upgrades for lower income homeowners, and we’ve talked with our campus catering company—Bon Appétit—about their sustainability and animal welfare commitments. In my Contesting Climate Justice class, students’ final projects focus on conveying a key idea (such as a concept related to climate justice) to a broad, non-academic audience, and in my ethics classes, I’ve asked students to write op-eds on issues that matter to them. When I’m specifically engaged in a particular project—like work on the National Academy of Sciences geoengineering report—I often bring those projects into discussions in the classroom. My students share important perspectives and raise questions that shape my thinking.

If someone wanted to take on civically engaged or public philosophy like yours, what steps or resources would you recommend?

Although it’s sometimes hard to know where to start, it’s often helpful just to start somewhere. Start by introducing an engaged philosophy assignment into a class you like to teach. Start by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper. Or start by teaming up with friends or colleagues to strategize about how to tackle an issue of community concern, and by talking with others who are already working on this issue. Civically engaged work is often best done with others, in community. As philosophers, we have a wide range of skills that can help support community organizations and social movements, but I try to keep in mind that there is a lot of expertise I don’t have, and a lot of that expertise resides in those who are doing important community-engaged work on the ground, day in and day out.

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