Elizabeth Allison

Elizabeth Allison, the newest faculty member in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (PCC), has always had an interdisciplinary focus. "When it came time to do a master's degree, I had to choose between my interest in religion and spirituality, and my passion for environmental science. I chose both." She completed two master's degrees simultaneously at Yale University: one at the Divinity School, and one at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Allison went on to complete a PhD at UC Berkeley in Environmental Science Policy and Management, but her heart was still in combining religion with studies of the environment.

"During the course of my interdisciplinary studies of religion and ecology, people kept asking me, ‘What are you going to do as a career?'" she says. "I was delighted to learn about a position at the Institute that required my particular expertise, especially since I had been reading the work of CIIS faculty members Brian Swimme, Joanna Macy, and Charlene Spretnak in my own research. It's remarkable to have colleagues and students at CIIS who are concerned both with the internal, emotional, spiritual, and social changes that need to take place to create a sustainable society; and with the external, ecological, and political changes."
In her first year teaching at CIIS, she is offering courses that combine these areas of interest. One of her spring 2010 classes is on environmental ethics. "The class applies the basic ethical questions to the environment: do non-human beings have moral status, do they deserve moral consideration, and if so, to what degree?"

Allison first got interested in questions of environmental ethics through her work in social justice movements during and after high school. She took a year off before starting college to work on hunger and homelessness issues. In Washington, DC, she participated in organizing a large number of people to sleep in the streets to dramatize the plight of the homeless. She also had an unusual job: she worked as a shepherd. In Arkansas, she tended goats and sheep to send abroad for a nonprofit that fights hunger by providing livestock to poor villages.

"When I took that year to do social justice work, I wanted to create space for the voice of the voiceless," says Allison. "Then I realized that beyond the marginalized human populations, there was another realm of voicelessness: wild species and ecosystems."

Her current projects include turning her dissertation on religion and ecology in Bhutan into a book, exploring the lessons from that country's experiences.

Meanwhile, Allison is teaching the next generation of activists. "I'm excited to have a cohort of students who bring the integral perspective of CIIS to the ecology movement. One of the difficulties in the environmental movement is the loss of emotion or heart or spirituality at times, which can lead to burnout. We hope that our students, who are thinking about integrating spirituality and activism, can model and practice an impassioned environmentalism."