By: Ava H.
Sarah E. Fredericks is an Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics and the Director of Doctoral Studies at UChicago. Her research focuses on sustainability, sustainable energy, environmental guilt and shame, environmental justice, and the interaction of religion, science, and philosophy.
Photo from: UChicago
When did you realize your interests in the environment and how did you decide on becoming a professor?
In the second or third year of my doctoral program I was not fully satisfied with the direction that my academic program was taking me as I wanted to do something more applied and that more people would be able to interact with (I had been studying quantum mechanics, philosophy, and divine action). I sat down to brainstorm a list of all of my interests. I was surprised to see how many of them revolved around renewable energy. So, I decided to pursue environmental ethics with a focus on energy.
What inspired you to pursue a PhD in Science, Philosophy and Religion?
I was and still am interested in questions that lie at the boundaries between disciplines such as how to make decisions about responding to climate change. I was also fascinated to find a doctoral program in religion that expected us to take science classes, and work in a lab. I wanted a rich interdisciplinary education.
What was your dissertation about? Why did you choose this topic?
I wrote about common features of multiple religious and philosophical ethical systems and public policy documents about sustainability. After identifying such principles, I evaluated methods of monitoring progress toward sustainability, finding that while they all said they prized justice among people living today and between people today and future generations, they could be improved in their pursuit of such justice.
How does your previous experience working in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Texas differ from your current position at the University of Chicago? How does your past job experience help you in your current research?
My previous position involved mostly undergraduate teaching and some graduate teaching; my current position is the opposite. My past experience deeply informs my teaching and the way that I help my current graduate students think about their own current and future teaching. My previous job involved significant collaboration with natural and social scientists, engineers, and anthropologists which informs the interdisciplinary approach to my research today.
How does your current research relate to your teaching in Environmental Justice in Chicago?
I am just finishing a book on environmental guilt and shame (to be published with Oxford University Press). I recognize that these moral emotions are often felt by people who are deeply concerned about environmental degradation and its effects on other people but these moral emotions, particularly shame, can inhibit people from taking action. Thus, my investigation of these moral emotions is motivated by a desire to understand and deal with these emotions to help people, including participants in injustice, in the quest for justice.
Since one of your areas of research is religious ethics, can you expand upon the religion aspect of environmental justice?
I think our readers would benefit from learning this unique perspective. Religion figures into environmental justice in several important ways. In no particular order, let me name three. First, environmental justice initiatives have often met in religious spaces (maybe a church basement) and relied on existing social justice networks which often are linked to religious organizations. For a number of people, the quest for justice is motivated by their religious beliefs and practices. Additionally, religious organizations have been instrumental in calling attention to and indeed defining environmental injustice, as we see with the United Church of Christ's landmark study "Toxic Wastes and Race" and the subsequent follow up studies. Alternatively, religious beliefs have and can also motivate injustices whether explicitly or implicitly. Christopher Carter's article "Blood in the Soil: The Racial, Racist, and Religious Dimensions of Environmentalism" in The Bloombsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature edited by Laura Hobgood and Whitney Bauman outlines how Christian ideas about nature and presuppositions of white privilege helped set up and promulgate conditions of environmental injustice.
What is a text from your course that you believe people could benefit reading and why?
In addition to Christopher Carter's article listed above, I have two suggestions. First, Heat Wave by Eric Kleinenberg which explores how social conditions in Chicago helped make the 1995 heat wave as deadly as it was. (Approximately 1000 more people died that week in Chicago.) It illustrates the relationship between policy, media, social interaction, racial disparities in economic and environmental opportunities, and the built environment in this disaster. My students have also recognized the connections between this disaster and current reactions to the COVID pandemic. I also recommend "Climate Change in the Midwest" https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/midwest-climate-impacts.pdf because I think the general public often thinks of climate change as something that is and will happen elsewhere, not something that will affect us here in the Midwest.
What has been your greatest reward as a professor teaching Environmental Justice in Chicago? Are there any students you’ve had that come to mind that have gone on to pursue careers related to Environmental Justice, or are currently in environmental internships or research?
The greatest reward so far as been seeing students make connections between social and environmental issues, to have them realize that environmental issues are not just of far away national parks and "pristine" wilderness, but involve issues of backyards, housing, workplace safety, recycling, and breathing clean air where we "live, work, and play" to use a phrase common in environmental justice. I know of a number of students who are interested in pursuing careers related to environmental justice. I am excited to see the work they pursue! One of my former students, Sarah Conrad, is currently a professor and pursuing publication of her research on environmental injustice in prisons related to electronic waste recycling.
Your upcoming book Environmental Guilt and Shame: Environmental Guilt and Shame: Signals of Individual and Collective Responsibility and the Need for Ritual Responses sounds very interesting! Can you elaborate on how various environmental emotions such as biophilia affect guilt and shame pertaining to the environment?
Yes I can. People with environmental values, those who care about the environment, are the very people who may feel guilt or shame if they judge themselves or their actions to not live up to their ideals.
Where do you see UChicago’s Program on the Global Environment going over the next 5-10 years?
This is a big question with many components. I don't want to answer for the whole program, but am looking forward to continuing to work with students on ethical issues related to the environment.
Do you have any advice for any environmentalists interested in pursuing a career in academia?
Talk to your professors and read about the academy (e.g. in The Chronicle of Higher Education) to get a better sense of what such work is like. Often students don't know about large portions of the job and don't recognize the many opportunities available to pursue amazing research outside of the academy. It is helpful to have knowledge of all of these possibilities if one is considering pursuing an academic career.
Photo from: UChicago
Thank you again to Professor Fredericks for partaking in this interview! We look forward to reading your upcoming book and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.