Join the Religious Studies Department and the Office of Sustainability for a talk from Professor Amanda J. Baugh regarding her new book, Falling in Love with Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism.
In Falling in Love with Nature, Amanda J. Baugh tells the story of American environmentalism through a focus on Spanish-speaking Catholics, shedding light on environmental actors who have been hidden in plain sight. While dominant narratives about environmental activism include minorities, primarily in the realm of environmental racism and injustice, Baugh demonstrates that minority communities are not merely victims of environmental problems. They can be active agents who express love for nature based on inherited family traditions and close relationships with the land. Baugh shows that Spanish-speaking Catholics have values that have been overlooked in global discourses, grassroots movements, and the highest echelons of the US Catholic Church. By drawing attention to the environmental knowledge that is already abundant within Spanish-speaking Catholic communities, Falling in Love with Nature challenges readers to rethink their assumptions about who can be an environmental leader and what counts as environmentalism.
Amanda J. Baugh is a scholar of the environmental humanities working at the intersection of religion, race, and environmental justice. She is a Professor and the Associate Chair of Religious Studies and Director of the MA Program in Sustainability at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Baugh is the author of God and the Green Divide: Religious Environmentalism in Black and White and has recently published Falling in Love With Nature: The Values of Latinx Catholic Environmentalism. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
