Michael Maniates
Professor of Political Science
  and Environmental Science
Allegheny College
814-332-2786

michael.maniates@allegheny.edu

Spring 2008 office hours: by appointment. Please email me to set up a time to meet.

          Michael Maniates (CV) is a Full Professor of Political Science and Environmental Science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. His is the only active joint appointment at Allegheny that bridges the natural- and social-sciences. He sometimes wonders (with trepidation) where he fits in Matt Groening's typology of college teachers(!)*

          This academic year (2007-08) Michael is spending most of his time writing (one recent example) and speaking (e.g. Washington D.C., Allegheny, Westminster, University of Florida, DePauw, Sonoma State, St. Bonaventure University, and Vanderbilt University) about a simple but troubling contradiction. We know intuitively that the best and most important things in life take hard work, struggle, and some sacrifice. We embrace and celebrate this fact as Americans. Yet we've somehow fallen into the comfortable assumption that "saving the environment" -- surely one of the most important challenges of our time -- can and should be individually easy, simple, and convenient. Titles of best-selling environmental books say it all: It's Easy Being Green, for example, or The Lazy Environmentalist, as do the "ten simple ways to make a difference" lists that populate the Web sites of major environmental groups, the Environmental Protection Agency, and even the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.

          Can working effectively for goals like climate stability, a socially-just policy on exposure to toxics, or renewable energy really be easy? Or by trying to make it attractive to do good in this world, are purveyors of "easy" inadvertently promoting a system that fails to engage our creativity and nurture our ability to make lasting change? Are we, in other words, being sold short?

          With the help of others, Mike is at work on these questions. The products of his efforts are gradually making their way to www.beyondeasy.org  It may come as no surprise, then, that Mike is especially fond of Tom Tomorrow (this link takes you to an entry page for Salon.com -- look for the red "Enter Salon" link in the upper corner of the page to get to Tom Tomorrow comics...well worth it!) and of the writings of the good folk at The Onion (their work on Earth Day and consumerism is especially thought-provoking).

          When he's not on research leave (as he is in 2007-2008), Maniates teaches classes on the politics of Third World "development," the domestic and international politics of environmental governance, energy futures, and the dynamics of social change. Maniates also studies and writes about global patterns of consumption, overconsumption, and consumerism; low consumption/high prosperity paths to development; underexplored routes of citizen involvement in contemporary environmental struggles; and joyful learning and teaching in the liberal arts. With his students he founded in 1996 the Meadville Community Energy Project, and served as a research affiliate with its successor, the Commonwealth Community Energy Project.

          Mike also founded and coordinates the Project on Teaching Global Environmental Politics, an electronic network of 300+ scholars, educators, and activists focused on global environmental affairs (see the project archive for a look at what we talk about). He is the co-founder and member of the Advisory Board of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, now celebrating its 20th year of interdisciplinary policy analysis and advocacy.

        Maniates holds a B.S. (Phi Beta Kappa) in Conservation and Resource Studies, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources, all from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a Fulbright scholar to India, a recipient of the Sprout Award for the best book in International Environmental Politics (with Tom Princen and Ken Conca) for Confronting Consumption (MIT Press 2002), and Academic Dean of the Spring 2007 'round-the-world sailing of Semester at Sea. In 2000, Allegheny College surprised him with the Thoburn Teaching Award for Innovation and Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

         Mike's best known publications include "Environmental Studies: The Sky is Not Falling," published in BioScience; "Individualization: Plant a Tree, Ride A Bike, Save the World" (abridged version here) and "In Search of Consumptive Resistance: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement" in Confronting Consumption; and "Of Knowledge and Power" in his edited volume Encountering Global Environmental Politics (Rowman & Littlefield 2003). He is currently at work on two projects around what he calls "the politics of sacrifice" within today's environmental movement - an edited academic volume tentatively titled The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice, to be published by MIT Press in late 2008; and a lively book aimed at a popular audience with the working title of Beyond Easy: Large, Difficult, and Rewarding Ways To Save the Planet. He's made his home in Meadville, Pennsylvania since 1993 with his wife Kathy Greely (state manager of PA Home Energy) and his two daughters Sarah (17) and Hannah (13).

Courtesy of Patrick Cavan Brown, fellow voyager on the Summer 2005 voyage of Semester at Sea

*In a bout of incredible kindness, Professor Sascha von Meier offers her own hand-drawn answer to that question.