MA in Individualized Studies Program
How did I arrive here and what do I have to offer students? It all happened through a series of accidents and opportunities as I pursued my many interests and efforts to do something in the world. I set out to become a biologist, became and educator, and am now an historian (among many other things). I’ve been employed as a naturalist, museum director, bookseller, and college professor. I’ve studied and written about popular culture and film (I’m an authority on Bambi), children’s literature, eco-criticism, environmental history, Appalachian history, and place. Long ago, I aspired to be a playwright, poet, and nature photographer.
There are, though, some common threads that tie my varied interests together. Chief among them are the desire to work for change in the world, the delight in leaping tall boundaries to create interdisciplinary approaches to understanding, bridging the sciences and humanities, investigating the relationships between culture and nature, and exploring the links between spirituality and environment. "Environment" is as much an idea as it is an actual place and ecological process. I am interested in the origins of our ideas, attitudes, and behavior toward nature and environment.
My book, The Nature Fakers: Wildlife, Science and Sentiment, explores a controversy among nature writers at the beginning of this century. Some of these issues are also explored in my book about the realistic wild animal story genre in literature, The Wild Anima Story. Some of my other publications examined the impacts of Disney's Bambi on American attitudes toward nature, the historical context of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the role of story and home in creating a sense of place, and the historical importance of chestnuts to poor mountain folk in the southern Appalachians. Environmental and place-based education can be tools for social change. My work in these fields has been through the non-formal sector, including museums and nature centers. I've been an educator and curator at Boston's Museum of Science, a naturalist at Hampshire College, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum, and director of the Outreach Division of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. I've also worked regionally and nationally to promote environmental education as President of the American Nature Study Society and president or board member of other regional, national and international organizations.
I enjoy working with students in a variety of fields, including popular culture studies, place studies, history, environmental studies, education, literature, the natural and social sciences, Appalachian and regional studies, natural history, museum studies, the management of nonprofit organizations, and much more. I particularly enjoy helping students in interdisciplinary projects. Thought, emotion and spirit must go hand-in-hand as we try to understand and deal with the major social issues of our times. I recognize the individual and cultural importance of story, myth, and emotion, and am interested in ways to balance them with our larger understandings of our world. I tend to approach issues as a skeptic who likes to test and probe beneath easily accepted assumptions and have some fun in the process.
In addition to my work in the IMA, I am also a member of the faculty of Goddard’s Individualized BA Program, and am editor of ”George”. You can see samples of my photography at TheBlueRidge.com.
Educational Background: Ed.D., 1978, Environmental Education, University of Massachusetts/Amherst; B.A., Biology (equivalent of minors in geology and theater), Trinity University, San Antonio.
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Ralph H. Lutts, Ed.D