Charting Knowledge: Ecology, Anthropology, and Education
My academic journey has been a series of deep intellectual expeditions, each aimed at understanding different facets of our world and our experience within it.
The “Explorer’s Mindset” has been my compass, guiding me through rigorous inquiry and fostering a passion for interdisciplinary understanding.
Magister and Doctor of Social & Cultural Anthropology: Mapping Human Worlds
My first university studies – my major, if you want to use the US equivalent – were focused on anthropology, not as natural science, but as the exploration of our mental worlds.
Even here, however, I focused on the interaction with the real, biological world:
My “Magister” (roughly equivalent to a Master’s) degree thesis explored the Buddhist understanding of the natural world and its possible lessons for environmentalism.
My doctorate in social/cultural anthropology expanded and deepened this exploration of our ways of thinking about and living in this world, looking at the interaction between our worldviews and our ways of being in the world.
Doctorate (PhD) in Ecology: Synergies between Ecology and ‘the Good Life’
From the equivalent of a minor in biology, I went on to pursuing a doctorate in ecology concurrently with that in social/cultural anthropology.
This work tried to take positive psychology’s foundational idea, i.e. that this discipline didn’t have to be a purely reactive, diagnostic field focused on everything that’s wrong as inspiration for a “positive ecology.”
After all, ecology has typically been a field of study focused not only on understanding relationships, but also on diagnosing what is going wrong in the human relationship with the natural world.
Why, however, shouldn’t it consider lessons from (positive) psychology and philosophy about the good life and put them in the context of ecological sustainability?
I said “this work tried…” above because I do not feel that I was as successful in explaining and promoting this potential as I would have liked to be. The consideration of better futures and ecologically as well as humanly good ways of living still motivates me.
Teacher Training in Biology and English: Exploring the Art of Imparting Knowledge
My desire to make complex knowledge accessible and ignored knowledge useful – and, yes, to have a sensible working life – eventually led me to teacher training in Biology and English.
Here, again, my eventual focus was interdisciplinary, as my thesis explored the plant blindness that even applies to spices and the potential they could have in biology education.