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Category: Member News

These are posts featuring news and updates for our ISSRNC members.

Cork Reception

A Philosopher and 300 Religious Studies Scholars Walk into a Bar

I’ve been involved with the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) almost from the start, beginning with the old membership committee, a handful of presentations, helping out with conference organizing, and five years as treasurer. All of this was fun, but nothing was more fascinating than being an eccentric philosopher…

Image credit: Laura Hobgood

Religion, Animals, and Academia

As a PhD student in 1994 I thought nobody else found questions of religion and nature both fascinating and incredibly important. Luckily, Belden Lane emerged as my dissertation adviser. He contributed an early voice to religion and nature in North America. Then I (not so randomly) ran into Bron Taylor, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, Jay McDaniel, Carol Adams, Paul Waldau, Sarah Pike, Roger Gottlieb, and so many more…

Fire and Ice on the Mountain

Religion, Ritual, and Ecology

I served as ISSRNC’s President from 2015-2018 and was fortunate to take the position after Bron Taylor’s, Kocku von Stuckrad’s, and Laura Hobgood’s leadership had already turned the society into a vibrant community of scholars…One of the most rewarding aspects of my involvement with ISSRNC has been supporting our collegial conference communities…

Photo from the Oak Flat field trip at the ISSRNC conference in 2023. © Evan Berry.

Past President Future Tense

Over the past decade, but especially since the beginning of Trump’s second term, the US federal government has steadily intensified its assault on institutions of higher education, on climate science, on student activist organizations, on student loan forgiveness programs, and on programs of study that focus on social and racial inequalities…

Foundations and Fluidity

Foundations and Fluidity CFP – 2026 ISSRNC Conference

Foundations and Fluidity will mark the 20th anniversary of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC)—a milestone not only for the Society but also for the emerging field of Religion and Nature/Ecology. October 10-14, 2026 | Casa Artom, Venice, Italy. See full details in the CFP.

2025 AAR Reception

Religion, Nature, and Ecology – 2025 AAR Reception

Our 2025 AAR reception will feature a Q&A with Melanie Harris on her new edited volume Preaching Black Earth as well as remarks from Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, founders of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Fri 11/21, 5-8pm.

Ellen Bernstein (photo: Steven Tenenbaum)

In Memory of Rabbi Ellen Bernstein (1953–2024)

Since the 1970s, environmentalism has emerged as a recognizable sensibility in American Judaism. Although a few secular Jews — such as Robert Marshal, Murray Bookchin, and Barry Commoner — greatly contributed to the rise of environmentalism in the United States, Jewish environmentalism as a movement came into existence only in the 1970s, largely in response to the provocative essay, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis,” of Lynn White Jr.