Professor, ŸĆĐăֱȄ National Scholar
Contact Information
âOŽÚŽÚŸ±łŠ±đ: Rm 3123 Biosciences Complex
Phone: 613.533.6000 ext. 78634
Email: michael.smith@queensu.ca
Mailing Address:
School of Environmental Studies
ŸĆĐăֱȄ
Biosciences Complex
Kingston, Ontario, Canada,
K7L 3N6
Department of Environmental Studies and Department of Philosophy
Supervising
Please direct inquiries to the contact information provided.
Mick also supervises graduate students through the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies.
Current Students
PhD
Joshua Jones (Env. Studies)
Kate Lawson (Philosophy)
Kelsey Watt
Completed Environmental Studies Graduate Students
Jason Young
Gabrielle Pulver (co-supervised with Kristen Lowitt)
Zhuonan Liu
Peter Graham
Liz Cooper
Tracey Guptill
Riley Cassidy
Kristan Hart
Royah Khorsandi
P. van Huesen
Lisa Figge
Heather Schmitt
Sunny Lam
Hilary Davies
Corinna Dally-Starna
Academic Training
Ph.D. (Humanism and Anti-humanism in Environmental Values), University of Stirling, UK (1993);
M.A. (Modern European Thought), Thames Polytechnic, UK (1988);
M.Phil (The Ecology of Basidiobolus and Conidiobolus in Soils and Plant Litters), North Staffordshire Polytechnic, UK (1988);
B.Sc. Hons. (Ecology), University of York, UK (1982).
Research Interests
I originally trained as an ecologist, inspired by the upsurge in environmental consciousness from the 1970's onwards. I have a long-standing interest in the experiential, social, and political reasons why people do (or don't) value differing aspects of ecological communities with a particular interest in environmental ethics. My research seeks to develop theoretical understandings of the complex intersections of nature and culture as they affect our evaluations and experiences of environments. It engages directly with a number of current debates that are of vital significance for environmental politics which might be classified under 6 specific but overlapping headings:
- Environmental hermeneutics and phenomenology - understanding how and why we come to interpret and experience environments in particular ways, for example, as 'wilderness', natural, or brown-field sites, and how these interpretations inform our understandings of those environments' roles, values and sustainability. In brief - what do we mean by 'nature', how do we experience it and how does it become meaningful to us?
- Environmental ethics - the nature of ethical values and the ethical value of nature.
- Social-theoretical understandings of nature and environmentalism - including the role of nature in sociological, political and philosophical traditions, debates about the social construction of nature, materialism, vitalism, theoretical understandings of space and place, and different ways of thinking about nature-society interactions, for example, 'risk society'.
- The emotional mediation of environmental responses - including emotional geographies, emotional attachments to place, bio-philias and bio-phobias.
- Environmental politics - the place of nature in political theory especially in terms of the relations between ideas of nature, freedom, and citizenship, sustainable development, ecological activism, ecofeminism, sovereignty, community, and deep ecology.
- Tourism ethics - the many ethical issues that arise at the intersections of cultures and ecologies due to tourism developments and recent attempts to ameliorate some of the more deleterious aspects of these developments through, for example eco-tourism.
I am jointly appointed between the School of Environmental Studies and the Department of Philosophy. My current work is concerned with posthumanist notions of ecological community. I was a founding editor of the Elsevier journal Emotion, Space and Society (http://www.elsevier.com/wps/locate/emospa). I am happy to consider supervising graduate students in any of these or allied fields.
Books Authored:
Smith, M & Young J. Does the Earth Care? Indifference, Providence, and Provisional Ecology. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022).
Smith, M. Against Ecological Sovereignty: Ethics, Politics, and Saving the Natural World (2011) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Smith M. and Duffy R. The Ethics of Tourism Development (2003) London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26685-8 (hbk) 0-415-26686-6 (pbk), pp.195.
Smith M. An Ethics of Place: Radical Ecology, Postmodernity and Social Theory (2001) New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-4907-6 (hbk) 0-7914-4908-4 (pbk), pp.286.
Books Edited:
Smith, Mick., Davidson, Joyce, Cameron, Laura, & Bondi, Liz. (2009) Emotion, Place and Culture Burlington VT & Farnham: Ashgate. ISBN 978 0 7546 7246 3
Davidson J., Bondi, L and Smith M. Emotional Geographies (2005) Burlington VT & Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0 7546 4375 1 pp.258. (hb) & 978 0 7546 4375 3 (pb)
Di Domenico, C. Law, A. Skinner, J and Smith, M. Scotland's Boundaries and Identities in the New Millennium (2001) Dundee: University of Abertay Press. ISBN 1-899796-08-8.
Chapters in Books:
Smith Mick & Young, Jason (2022) âDoes the Earth Care? Indifference, providence, and provisional ecology in an age of atmospheric changeâ in Nuno Castanheira et al ed. QuestĂ”es EcolĂłgicas em Perspectiva Interdisciplinar Vol. 2, Brasil: Editora Fundação FĂȘnix. pp.13-36. available for download at ISBN â 978-65-81110-67-3
Smith, M. (2021) âCommunity (Ecology and the Body Politic)â in Marc Botha & Patricia Waugh eds. Future Theory: A Handbook of Critical Concepts (London: Bloomsbury 2021).
Smith, M. âPlaceâ in Dominick DellaSala & Michael Goldstein eds. Encyclopaedia of the Anthropocene (Amsterdam: Elsevier (2017) pp.95-101
Smith, M. âThe Anthropocene: The eventual geo-logics of posthuman tourism?â in Bryn Grimwood, Kellee Caton, and Lisa Cooke eds. New Moral Natures in Tourism (London: Routledge 2017)
Smith, M. âRainâ in Jeffrey Cohen & Lowell Duckert eds. Veer Ecology: A Companion for Environmental Thinking (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2017)
Smith, M.âMorrowâs Ants: E.O. Wilson and Gadamerâs Critique of (Natural) Historicismâ in Forrest Clingerman, Brian Treanor, Martin Drenthen and David Ustler eds. Interpreting Nature: The Emerging field of Environmental Hermeneutics New York: Fordham University Press, 2014).
Smith, M. & Davidson, JâAutistic Autobiographies and More-than-Human Emotional Geographiesâ in Dale Spencer, Kevin Walby & Alan Hunt eds. Emotions Matter: A Relational Approach to Emotions Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012) pp.260-279.
Smith, M.âApres Moi le Deluge: Ethics, Empire, and the Biopolitics of âLast-Chanceâ Tourismâ, in R. Lemelin, J. Dawson & E. Stewart eds. Considering the Ethical Dimensions of Last-Chance Tourism (London: Routledge, 2012).pp.153-167
Smith, M.âThe Earthly Politics of Ethical An-Arche: Arendt, Levinas, and Being with Othersâ, in William Edelglass edLevinas and Ecology. (Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press, 2011). pp.135-160.
Smith, M. âThe State of Nature: The Political Philosophy of Primitivism and the Culture of Contaminationâ in Nathan J. Jun and Shane Wahl (eds.) New Perspectives in Anarchism (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010) pp.381-399.
Davidson, J. and Smith, M. âEmotional Geographiesâ, in Rob Kitchin and Nigel Thrift (eds.) International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography (Oxford: Elsevier, 2009), pp. 440-445.
Smith, M. âEthical Perspectives: Exploring the Ethical Landscape of Tourismâ in Tazim Jamal and Mike Robinson eds.The SAGE Handbook of Tourism Studies (London: SAGE, 2009) pp.613-630
Smith, M. âDevelopment and its Discontents: Ego-Tripping Without Ethics or Idea(l)s' in J. Tribe ed Philosophical Issues in Tourism(Bristol: Channel View Publications, 2009).
Smith, M. âRoad kill: Remembering What is Left in our Encounters With Other Animals' in Smith, Mick, et al Emotion, Place and Culture(Burlington VT and Farnham: Ashgate Press 2009) pp.21-34.
Smith, M. and Davidson, J. âCivility and Etiquette' in T. Hall, P. Hubbard & J.R. Short eds. The SAGE Companion to the City(London: SAGE 2008) pp.231-49.
Smith M. 'On 'Being' Moved by Nature: Geography, Emotion and Environmental Ethics' in Emotional Geographies in J. Davidson, L. Bondi and M. Smith eds. Burlington VT & Aldershot: Ashgate (2005) pp.219-30.
Smith M. and Davidson J. 'Bio-phobias / Techno-philias: Virtual Reality Exposure as Treatment for Phobias of 'Nature'' in Clive Seale ed. Health and the Media Oxford: Blackwell (2004) pp. 126 - 142.
Smith M. 'Ethical Issues' in Moya Morison et al eds. Chronic Wound Care - a Problem Based Approach Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill (2003) pp.319-329.
Smith, M. 'Letting in the Jungle' in Andrew Brennan ed. The Ethics of the Environment International Research Library of Philosophy Aldershot: Dartmouth Press (1996).
Smith, M. 'Cheney and the Myth of the Postmodern' in Postmodernism and the Environment in Max Oelschlaeger New York: State University of New York Press (1995). pp.261-76.
Smith, M. 'A Green Thought in a Green Shade: A Critique of the Rationalisation of Environmental Values' in Yvonne Guerrier et al. eds. Values and the Environment: A Social Science Perspective Chichester: John Wiley (1995) pp.51-60.
Papers in Refereed Journals:
Smith, M. (2019) â(A)wake for âthe Passions of this Earthâ: Extinction and the Absurd âEthicsâ of Novel Ecosystemsâ Cultural Studies Review 25 (1) pp.119-134.
Smith, M. âSomewhere in the North of England: Memories, Emotional Entanglements, and an Orchidâ Emotions, History, Culture, Society 1(1) 139-162. 2017
Smith, M. âEcological Community: Ernst Haeckel and the Natural and Political History of Creationâ The Goose Volume 15 (2) pp.17-22. 2017
Vardy, M. & Smith, M. âResilienceâ Environmental Humanities 2017. Environmental Humanities 2017 Volume 9 (1) 175-179, 2017
Smith M. âDeep Ecology: What is Said and (to be) Done?â The Trumpeter 30 (2): 141-156, 2014.
Smith, M. (2013) Ecological Community, the sense of the world, and senseless extinctionâ Environmental Humanities 2 pp.21-41.
Smith, M. (2013) Earthly Passion(s): Essays towards an emotional ecology Emotion, Space and Society 6 pp.1-3. Editorial
Smith, M. (2013) Lo spazio âeticoâ del mattatoio: Lâ(in)umana macellazione degli altri animali Liberationi: Revista di Critica Antispecista 14 pp.5-28 Italian translation of The âEthicalâ Space of the Abattoir.
Smith, M. Davidson, J & Henderson V. âSpiders, Sartre, and Magical Geographies: The Emotional Transformation of Spaceâ Transactions of the British Geographical Society.
Smith, M. âEdward Hyams: Ecology and Politics Under the Vineâ Environmental Values 20(1) pp.95-119, 2011
Smith, M. âDis(appearance): Earth, Ethics and Apparently (In)significant Othersâ Australian Humanities Review 50 pp.23-44, 2011
Smith, M.âEpharmosis: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Political Oecology of Creationâ Environmental Ethics 32(4) pp.385-404, 2010
Smith, M. âAgainst Ecological Sovereignty: Agamben, Politics and Globalizationâ Environmental Politics 18 (1): 99-116, 2009
Davidson, J & Smith, M. âAutistic Autobiographies and More-than Human Emotional Geographiesâ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 27: 898-916, 2009
Smith, M. âThinking Ecologically: A Critiqueâ Environments 36(2) pp.61-77, 2008 (with a response by Bruce Morito and Andrew McMurray in the same volume.)
Smith M. âSuspended Animation: Radical Ecology, Sovereign Powers, and Saving the Natural Worldâ Journal for the Study of Radicalism 2 (1): 1-25, 2008
Smith M. âWorldly (In)Difference and Ecological Ethics: Iris Murdoch and Emmanuel Levinasâ Environmental Ethics 29(1) 23-41, 2007
Smith, M. âWild Life: Anarchy, Ecology and Ethicsâ Environmental Politics 16(3) 470-87, 2007
Smith, M. âEcological Citizenship and Ethical Responsibility: Arendt, Benjamin and Political Activismâ Environments 33(3) 51-64, 2005 â actual date published 2007.
Smith M. âEnvironmental Risks and Ethical Responsibilities: Arendt, Beck, and the Politics of Acting into Natureâ Environmental Ethics 28(3): 227-246, 2006
Davidson J. and Smith M. and ââIt makes my skin crawlâŠ.â: The Embodiment of Disgust in Phobias of âNatureââ, Body and Society12(1): 43-67, 2006
Smith M. âHermeneutics and the Culture of Birds: The Environmental Allegory of âEaster Islandâ Ethics, Place and Environment: A Journal of Philosophy and Geography 8(1): 21-38, 2005
Smith M. âCitizens, Denizens and the Res Publica: Environmental Ethics, Structures of Feeling, and Political Expressionâ Environmental Values 14: 145-62 2005.
Smith M. âShadow and Shade: the Ethopoietics of Enlight±đČÔłŸ±đČÔłÙ.â Ethics, Place and Environment 6: 117-30, 2003
Smith M. and Davidson J. 'Bio-phobias / Techno-philias: Virtual Reality Exposure as Treatment for Phobias of 'Nature'', Sociology of Health and Illness 25(6): 644-61, 2003
Smith M. âEthical Difference(s): A Response to Maycroft on Le Corbusier and Lefebvre.â Ethics, Place and Environment 5: 260-9, 2002
Smith M. âThe Ethical Space of the Abattoir.â Human Ecology Review 9(2): 49-58, 2002
Smith M. âThe State of Nature: The Political Philosophy of Primitivism and the Culture of Contamination.â Environmental Values 11: 407-25, 2002
Smith M. and Davidson J. âSo Hitchcock was scared of BirdsâŠ? âNaturalâ Nerves and Cultured Control in Film, Fear and Phobia' Scottish Journal of Media Education 16-20, 2002
Smith M. âEnvironmental Anamnesis: Walter Benjamin and the Ethics of Extinction.â Environmental Ethics 23(4): 359-376, 2001
Smith M. âLost for Words? Gadamer and Benjamin on the Nature of Language and the âLanguageâ of Natureâ Environmental Values 10: 59-75, 2001
Smith M. âThe Face of Nature: Environmental Ethics, Aesthetics and the Boundaries of Social Theoryâ Current Sociology â special issue on Sociology and the Environment 49(1): 49-65, 2001
Smith M. âRepetition and Difference: Lefebvre, Le Corbusier, and Modernityâs (Im)Moral Landscapeâ Ethics, Place and Environment 4(1): , 2001
Smith M. âEnvironmental Antinomianism: The Moral World Turned Upside Down?â Ethics and the Environment 5(1): 125-139, 2000
Smith M.âTo Speak of Trees: Social Constructivism, Environmental Values and the Futures of Deep Ecologyâ Environmental Ethics 21(4): 359-376, 1999
Davidson J. and Smith M. âWittgenstein and Irigaray: Philosophy in a Language (Game) of Differenceâ Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy 14(2): 72-96, 1999
Smith, M. âThe Ethical Architecture of the Open Roadâ Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion 2(3): 185-199, 1998.
Smith, M. âAgainst the Enclosure of the Ethical Commons: Radical Environmentalism as an Ethics of Placeâ Environmental Ethics 19(4): 339-353, 1997.
Smith, M. âCheney and the Myth of the Postmodernâ Environmental Ethics15(1) 3-17, 1993.
Smith, M. âLetting in the Jungleâ Journal of Applied Philosophy 8(2): 145-154, 1991.
Callaghan A. and Smith M. âQuantitative Survey of Conidiobolus and Basidiobolus in Soils and Litterâ with Arthur Callaghan Transactions of the British Mycological Society 89(2): 179-185, 1987