John G. Hintz -- University of Kentucky Department of Geography

John G. Hintz
College of Arts and Sciences♣ Geography♠ People♥ Graduate Students ♦

“I think we are fools to turn from the superhuman beauty of the world and dredge our own minds.”

I moved to Lexington from Idaho, where I worked for nearly four years as a GIS Analyst for the Nez Perce Tribe. I just finished my Ph.D. and will be assistant professor of geography at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania beginning August of 2005.

I live with my wife Michelle and our three wonderful children, Lyell, Claire, and Theo. Michelle and I hail from Florida and make annual or semi-annual pilgrimages to our home state to visit with family and friends and frolic in the saltwater.

Areas of Academic Interest

Nature ↔ Society
Pragmatism and Environmental Ethics
Deep/Social/Scientific/Political Ecologies
Animals and wildlife conservation
Charismatic Megafauna

email me: johnhintz@uky.edu

My current cv (pdf format)

My research applies various theoretical approaches to nature-society relations to examine the politics of nature conservation. Specifically, I am interested in examining how environmentalists translate scientific, ethical, and aesthetic concerns over nonhuman nature into normative, protective strategies. In short, how does nature become politicized? My doctoral dissertation research examines one of the greatest of the “Great New Wilderness Debates”: the (ongoing) efforts to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Bitterroot ecosystem of central Idaho.

As the debates over reintroduction developed, two groups emerged advocating distinct — and increasingly opposed — programs for grizzly reintroduction. My thesis is that this sharp divide within the environmentalist community was as much of an obstacle to the overall goal of reintroducing grizzly bears as was the oppositional work of outright opponents of reintroduction. Through a critical examination of the two groups advocating grizzly reintroduction (as well as the opponents of reintroduction), my dissertation evaluates: (a) the strengths and weaknesses of each group's initiatives, and (b) the impasses that prevented anything close to an environmentalist consensus from developing. Ideally, this critical examination will inform future efforts for grizzly reintroduction and predator conservation in the region specifically, and North American environmentalism more generally.

Recent Publications

“The Role of Wilderness and Public Land Amenities in Explaining Migration and Rural Development in the American Northwest.” in Gary Green (editor), Amenities and Rural Development (Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar). 3^rd author with Christy Dearien and Gundars Rudzitis. 2005 (forthcoming).

Book Review of Shepard Krech, John Robert McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant (editors), Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (New York: Routledge, 2002). Cultural Geographies 12(1). 2005.

"Grizzly Conservation and the Nature of Essentialist Politics." Capitalism, Nature, Socialism 14(4). December, 2003, p. 121-145.

Book Review of Val Plumwood, Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (New York: Routledge, 2002). Human Ecology Review 10(1). Summer, 2003.

Education

Ph.D. in Geography, University of Kentucky, 2005. Dissertation: Pragmatism and the Politics of Rewilding Nature: The Case of Grizzly Bear Reintroduction in Idaho.

M.S. in Geography, University of Idaho, 1998. Thesis: Population, Migration and High Amenity Landscapes in the Northwest United States.

B.S. in Geography, Florida State University, 1988.

Teaching Experience

Geography 160: Lands and People of the Non-Western World. Summer 2002; Spring 2003; Spring 2004.

Geography 130: Earth’s Physical Environment. Summer 2003; Fall 2003.

Geography 152: World Regional Geography. Summer 2001.

Here are some links to interesting websites:

1. Grizzly and/or Bear Links:

Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee
Craighead Environmental Research Institute

The Great Bear Foundation
Alliance for the Wild Rockies
NWF's Grizzly Page

Predator Conservation Alliance

2. Links to various non-bear sites: