Trent History Professor's Book Wins Third Award
Seeing Green focuses on use and abuse of environmental images
You can’t shop your way to ecological salvation, regardless of what the media tells you. This is one of the messages in Trent University History Professor, Dr. Finis Dunaway’s Seeing Green: The Use and Abuse of American Environmental Images. The book, which looks at the way the mainstream media interprets environmentalism, has received its third award – the Robert K. Martin Prize from the Canadian Association for American Studies.
Selected for “making a vital, original contribution to American cultural and political history, and to environmental criticism and image studies more generally,” Seeing Green challenges the way we think about environmentalist discourse, and the role consumerist ideology plays in that conversation, Professor Dunaway says the overall message in his work, is that environmental problems are systemic and that solutions are not as simple as persuading everyone to recycle. Adding, “NOT that I’m against recycling.”
“One of the main problems that I see in many popular environmental images is their repeated emphasis on individual responsibility,” says Prof. Dunaway. “The American failure to address the climate crisis in a more responsible fashion stems from numerous factors and the popular framing of environmentalism as a market-oriented, green consumerist strategy has also contributed to the neglect of climate change and other long-term environmental problems. Americans have been encouraged to recycle and, if they could afford it, shop their way to ecological salvation.”
Prof. Dunaway says a lot of the material for Seeing Green came from his third-year History and Environmental Resource Studies course, The Environmental Crisis, from the Atomic Bomb to Global Warming.
“This course is a cross between History and Environmental Studies, and I like it because it attracts student from across disciplines; from History, Politics, English, Environmental Studies,” says Dunaway. “These students are very aware of contemporary issues. This creates lively and vibrant discussions and makes for really good learning. Trent has had a big impact on Environmental Studies – the work I do is inspired by that. It’s so wonderful to be part of a university that prides itself on its commitment to interdisciplinary studies.”
Learn more about the other awards Prof. Dunaway has received for his book.