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Sustainability and campus culture topic of Hulings Lecture event at Northland

January 12, 2012

The next featured speaker in the Hulings Lecture series at Northland College takes on a topic near and dear to a school with a unique environmental mission. Dr. James Farrell looks at how college and American culture impact sustainability in his presentation, "The Nature of Our Lives: Sustainability and American culture." Farrell will speak on Wednesday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. in the Sentry Room of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. The event, another offering in the Northland College Community Connections series, is free and open to the public.

Farrell is a professor of History, American Studies, Environmental Studies and American Conversations at St. Olaf College. Farrell has examined environmental beliefs in American culture and encourages students to be a driving force toward a more sustainable future.

"College culture is a subset of American culture, and the environmental beliefs and behavior we see on campus come from, and go back to, American culture, at its best and at its worst," says Dr. Farrell. "The ecological revolution of the 21st century isn't optional. It will happen sooner or later, but the sooner the better because we still have the ability to craft a society appropriate for a planet with a biosphere, a society that fulfills (and employs) human beings better than the society we currently live in."

Farrell received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from Loyola University in Chicago, as well as a master's in History and doctorate in American Culture from the University of Illinois. Farrell has authored several books, including his latest book "The Nature of College: How a New Understanding of Campus Life Can Change the World."

"[Farrell] reveals what's behind the stuff in dorm rooms, the lifecycle of clothes, our cars and electronics. He dives into the nature of college parties, sex, politics and religion," says Clayton Russell, A.D. & Mary Elizabeth Andersen Hulings Chair in the Humanities at Northland College. "He covers a great deal of ground in ways that are both insightful and humorous and he leaves the reader with strategies for the creation of a greener campus and community environmental history."

The A.D. & Mary Elizabeth Andersen Hulings Chair in the Humanities was established in September 1990 to support a senior scholar in the humanities. The endowment funds promotion and strengthening of the Humanities at Northland College.