Kathleen Dean Moore, one of the most provocative voices in environmental writing, will be the featured speaker at Northland College’s 105th Commencement Ceremony. She will also receive an honorary degree as a Doctor of Humane Letters.

“Moore’s work brings together the art of the essay, the wisdom of the natural world, and the moral clarity of philosophy to explore our place on the planet and our responsibilities for its thriving,” said President Michael A. Miller.

Moore has written nine books and in 2000 was awarded the Northland College Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award for Holdfast: A Home in the Natural World, a collection of essays where Moore seeks to understand what holds her firmly to family and place.

Her most recent book, Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change, published earlier this year, takes on essential questions about our obligation to the future.

Great Tide Rising has been chosen as a “global read” by the Charter for Compassion Global Book Club. People around the world are invited to read the book—then come together virtually for a conversation on October 22, 2016.

Northland College has also chosen Great Tide Rising for a One Campus, One Book reading experience, modeled on One City, One Book initiatives.

Moore is an emeritus distinguished professor of philosophy at Oregon State University, where she taught critical thinking and environmental ethics, and is cofounder and senior fellow of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. Its mission is to bring together the practical wisdom of the environmental sciences, the analytic clarity of philosophy, and the emotional power of the written word to re-imagine our relation to the natural world.