Jim Proctor

Professor & Etc | Lewis & Clark College | Portland, OR

Main Content

Looking Up at Canyon Mountain, Southern Oregon

“The opposite of a truth is a falsehood. But the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth.” (Niels Bohr)

When I was young I’d often climb Canyon Mountain above my home, look in all directions,
and witness the human hand written into the forested landscape.

Perhaps these experiences mingling culture and nature—
or perhaps having this contradiction watch over me as a child—
led me to embrace truth as paradox.

 

 

 

Words

My work in environmental theory focuses on key concepts such as nature, place, science, spirituality, and sustainability.

I call them Big Words, as they are often invoked in a broad-brush way to understand and act in the world.
But many times they don’t provide the helpful guidance we need today—thus my search for Better Big Words.

My EcoTypes initiative is one way I help students reflect on the Big Words that move them.

The Words site has some related posts [somewhat out of date], and a summary of selected publications.

Go to Words Site

EcoTypes

EcoTypes gets at some fundamental ideas that affect how you approach environmental issues.
The site includes a survey covering different EcoTypes axes and themes, finally assigning you one of five EcoTypes.

Go to EcoTypes Site

ENVS Resources

My day job is as Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies (ENVS) Program at Lewis & Clark College.
There are two related online resources I’d like to share with the wider world.

In ENVS, we help students do innovative environmental scholarship, and apply it to the world to make a “different difference.”
Some of the approaches we take are available on an ENVS resources site.

Go to ENVS Resources Site

Also, from 2012 to 2020, I authored a variety of sites, primarily on two dedicated subdomains, ds.lclark.edu and envs.lclark.edu,
to support Lewis & Clark digital scholarship. We have archived over a dozen of these sites
to preserve some of their content and suggest the possibilities for digital scholarship in the liberal arts.

Browse Site Archives

ACCF

Alder Creek Community Forest (ACCF) is an outdoor education nonprofit I founded on my 80 acre forest in southern Oregon.

It’s probably the most practical and challenging thing I do in my life, given the realities and possibilities of rural America.

ACCF primarily does K-12 geography education. We are building a statewide curriculum called Story of Your Place.

Browse ACCF Site

About JDP

I’m a professor at Lewis & Clark College and Director of the Environmental Studies Program,
with broad interests in environmental theory.

I’m also the proud daddy of Joy and Elise; a singer-songwriter;
founded an educational nonprofit, Alder Creek Community Forest,
on my land in southern Oregon;
and a few other things.

See here for more details about me, here for selected publications, here for Mastadon, and below for tweets.

Go to Songs Site  Browse Slideshows