Reader in English and American Literature, Dr Michael Jonik, from the School of Media, Arts and Humanities has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. Both fellowships are for his project, 'Thoreau's Radical Ecologies: Philosophy, Politics, Collective Agency'.
American naturalist, poet, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau has been characterised as a prophet of individual resistance or solipsistic withdrawal. However, 'Thoreau’s Radical Ecologies' argues against these caricatures, suggesting that his political and natural philosophical writing instead presents a compelling theory of collective agency that addresses important issues of ecological and social justice in our present time.
Michael's project examines Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience, his abolitionism, his natural history, his research in indigenous languages, and his Stoic ethics to understand how he views human-nonhuman modes of dwelling to be deeply relational.
The outcomes of the project include a monograph, an international conference about Thoreau’s collectivist
eco-politics, and a public engagement event exploring his relevance for environmental justice.
Congratulations Michael!