East Asia Observatory

Raymond Anthony is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alaska Anchorage and specialize in environmental, food, animal and agricultural ethics, and ethical theory and the philosophy of technology. Currently, he is pursuing values-aware research in global food security, sustainability, animal welfare and climate ethics. He serves as Ethics Advisor for the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Committee and Panels on Euthanasia, Humane Slaughter and Depopulation. You may find more information about his research, teaching and service at: https://alaska.digication.com/raymond_anthony_professor_of_philosophy/Welcome/published

J. Baird Callicott retired as University Distinguished Research Professor and Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Texas.  He is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy and author or editor of a score of books and author of dozens of journal articles, encyclopedia articles, and book chapters in environmental philosophy and ethics.  Callicott has served the International Society for Environmental Ethics as President and Yale University as Bioethicist-in-Residence, and he has served the UNT Department of Philosophy and Religion as chair.  His research goes forward simultaneously on four main fronts: theoretical environmental ethics; comparative environmental ethics and philosophy; the philosophy of ecology and conservation policy; and biocomplexity in the environment, coupled natural and human systems (sponsored by the National Science Foundation).  Callicott is perhaps best known as the leading contemporary exponent of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and has elaborated an Aldo Leopold Earth ethic, Thinking Like a Planet (OUP 2013), in response to global climate change.  He taught the world’s first course in environmental ethics in 1971 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  His teaching at UNT included graduate and undergraduate courses in ancient Greek philosophy and ethical theory in addition to environmental philosophy.

Shiuhhauh Serena Chou (周序樺)​ received her Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of Southern California in 2007, and is Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Her research focus on American environmental literature and theory. Her essays appear in journals including Concentric, MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S., Comparative Literature Studies, and Foreign Literature Studies. She is at work on a book manuscript on American organic farming literature and culture.

Over the past 40 years in southwestern Okinawa, views of the sea and ino (nearshore coral reefs) have shifted as this region has become a site of stewardship among coastal residents. Village life shapes and is shaped by the coral reef in multiple dimensions. Spiritual interests in the nearshore sea result in engagements with the sea during annual festivals and in daily prayers, occasions during which the nearshore sea (ino) becomes a site for purification and protection. At the same time, Shiraho village has emerged as a cohesive target of mainland scientific and tourist interest because of its presentation as an eco-village with a strong “coral reef culture.” Past and present articulations of Shiraho as a cohesive village shaped by its coral reef are conditioned by demographic changes that have brought increasing numbers of newcomers from mainland Japan. Two recent conservation projects involve residents in new kinds of material engagements with the ino, and I examine how the Sunday Market and periodic walks provide the platform for self-reflective enforcement of a village sense of place as well as aspirational place-making by mainland Japanese conservationists.

Dr Bill Jeffery has been working as a maritime archaeologist for over 30 years. Bill’s background in maritime archaeology is in Australia, where after studying with the Western Australian Museum, he formulated and coordinated a maritime heritage program for a state government agency, Heritage South Australia from 1981-2001. He went onto working with the Federated States of Micronesia National Historic Preservation Office and completing a PhD in maritime archaeology at James Cook University. He is a consulting maritime archaeologist to ERM Hong Kong, and Research Associate with the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Since 2002, he has been working on various aspects of maritime archaeology in Hong Kong and more recently the training of a number of local divers, and the implementation of maritime archaeology research and excavation projects, the first such projects to be conducted in Hong Kong. He has implemented various types of archaeological and heritage investigations in Australia, the Pacific region, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and various countries in Africa. Bill has lectured in cultural heritage preservation, maritime archaeology and conducted maritime archaeology field schools with Flinders University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Guam and James Cook University in addition to teaching Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) training programs in eleven different countries. He is currently Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of Guam.

Matthias Kaiser (Dr. phil.; philosophy, University of Frankfurt, after studies at the universities of LMU Munich, Frankfurt a.M., Oslo, and Stanford) is Professor at and Director of the Centre for the Study of Science and the Humanities (SVT) at the University of Bergen since March 2011. Before that he was Director of the National Committee for Research Ethics in Science and Technology (NENT) since 1991. He holds acknowledged competence as full professor in philosophy of science since 1996. Previously he was adjunct professor on a part-timebasis at the SVT (2008-11) and until 2006 he was adjunct professor for philosophy of science in the doctoral education program at the College of Architecture (AHO) in Oslo. His main work and areas of expertise are in the fields of philosophy of science, ethics of science, food ethics, and technology assessment. His areas of competence include social studies of science and technology, history of science, ethics, logic, and history of philosophy.

James McRae holds a Ph.D. in comparative philosophy from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with specializations in Japanese philosophy and ethics.  He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Asian Philosophy and Religion at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.  His publications include the books Japanese Environmental Philosophy (with J. Baird Callicott, Oxford University Press, forthcoming in 2017), Environmental Philosophy in Asian Traditions of Thought (with J. Baird Callicott, SUNY Press, 2014) and The Philosophy of Ang Lee (with Robert Arp and Adam Barkman, University Press of Kentucky, 2013).

Dr. Curtis Rigsby is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Coordinator of East-Asian Studies at the University of Guam. He is the Chair of the Japan Committee of the Society of Christian Philosophers and has enjoyed the support of the John Templeton Foundation. As an East-West Center Fellow and Monbusho Grantee, his research engages the religio-philosophical traditions of India, China, and especially Japan. He is a co-launcher and the Book Review Editor of the SUNY Press Journal of Japanese Philosophy. However, he also has strong interests and competencies in Western traditions, and his approach to inquiry is decidedly comparative, global, and holistic. He promotes dialogue between ordinarily disconnected or mutually opposed groups. Further, while pursuing excellence in scholarship, inquiry for him is never merely an academic exercise. His aim is friendship, excellence in all things, fair and conscientious allocation of resources, and responsibility between persons and toward the environment.

James D. Sellmann was born and raised in the city of Niagara Fall, New York. He was awarded B.A. degrees in Psychology, and Philosophy from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and M.A. degrees in Asian Religions, and Comparative Philosophy from the University of Hawaii. He was awarded the Ph.D. in Chinese Philosophy from the University of Hawaii. He has published over 100 articles in various peer reviewed books, encyclopedias, and journals such as Asian Philosophy, and Philosophy East and West. He published Timing and Rulership in Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals, State University of New York Press, 2002. Concerning the environment he has published: “An Uncommon Alliance: Ecofeminism and Classical Daoist Philosophy,” Environmental Ethics, 25/2, 129-148, 2003 with co-author Dr. Sharon Rowe, University of Hawaii; “Living on the Edge in Micronesian Ecological Philosophy,” International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, vol. 11, no. 1, 2002; “Ecological Feminism and Daoism,” Asian Culture Quarterly, XXVIII/4 Winter, 2000 with co-author Dr. Sharon Rowe, University of Hawaii; “The Environment, Traditional Values, and the Multi-National Corporation,” International Symposium on East-West Cultural Interflow, Macau, Macau: Macau Foundation, March, 1994; and “Eco-Ethics: A New Perspective from Guam,” Asian Culture Qrt, XXI/3, 1993, 41-51. James is the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and Professor of Philosophy and Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam. He enjoys gardening, and hiking.

Paul B. Thompson holds the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stony Brook University in 1980, and has held faculty appointments at Texas A&M University (1981-1997) and Purdue University (1997-2003) before joining the Departments of Philosophy, Community Sustainability and Agricultural Food and Resource Economics at MSU in 2003. Thompson is the author of over 200 journal articles and book chapters, mostly focused on ethical issues and environmental impacts in global, regional and local food systems, along with risk analysis and the foundations of sustainability science. With Kirill Thompson, he has organized international workshops on the Asian perspectives in environmental ethics and has lectured in Thailand, China and Japan, as well as Taiwan. He is a two-time winner of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Award for Excellence in Communication and His book From Field to Fork: Food Ethics for Everyone (Oxford University Press) was selected as the Book of the Year for 2015 by North American Society for Social Philosophy.