Join the Environmental Change Initiative on Thursday May 2 for their first Science at Sunset for 2019.  Michael Cramer will be presenting a lecture titled: The Deer Mouse: Portrait of a Misunderstood Mammal

Come join ND-LEEF to learn about the natural history of bald eagles, their recent comeback and how they became one of our national symbols. Following the presentation, spotting scopes and binoculars will be available to view the eagle nest. A light breakfast snack and beverages will be served. Program content will be geared for participants 10 years and older. Registration and $7 payment are required by May 1.  To register, call St. Joseph County Parks at 574-654-3155 or contact via email…

Summary

Lisa Sideris

Discourse on the relationship between science and religion frequently invokes the language of wonder, and Anthropocene discourse is no exception. My presentation will examine the moral imaginary of wonder in current debates about the application of a specific Anthropocene technology: de-extinction strategies and related genetic tools applied to extinct or soon-to-be-extinct species. I argue that wonder, as it is often invoked in discussions of de-extinction, has little to do with express concerns about the justice, rights, or well-being of organisms, and thus bears little obvious connection to conservation and restoration rationales. Instead, these uses of wonder are largely expressions of awe at human power, creativity, and ingenuity. As such, wonder-inspired de-extinction strategies actually disrupt or obviate the need to respond with grief and mourning to human-caused extinctions. Moreover, as I will suggest, these uses of wonder lay claim to a particular and problematic image of the human, a theological anthropology that posits humans as the creative, world-making being par excellence. What other visions of the human might be available to us in a world that is increasingly the product of human activity?…