Jason Peters to Deliver Keynote Address
Students are often surprised to see Dr. Jason Peters walking to work on cold winter days. But those who've taken his courses know why he prefers to get around by foot rather than by car. Dr. Peters is an Augustana College English professor who teaches envirorunentalliterature, and he's a person who thinks about the impact he makes on the environment. So when it comes to getting to work, he'd rather slowly wear out a pair of shoes than burn a few extra gallons of gas.
Avoiding unnecessary driving is one way Dr. Peters limits the amount of resources he consumes, but his environmentalism is also noteworthy for what he has produced. This includes "Wendell Berry: Life and Work" (University Press of Kentucky, 2007),a new book edited by Dr. Peters that features commentary and analysis by scholars and writers on the farmer, poet, teacher, essayist and social critic Wendell Berry. Dr. Peters, who holds degrees from Calvin College and Michigan State University, co-teaches an interdisciplinary course titled "Environmental Literature and Landscape" with Dr. Charlie Mahaffey of Augustana's geography department. In addition to studying the writing of authors like Wendell Berry, the course has featured significant field study as well, including a trip to the annual Prairie Festival at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas.
As an extension of this course, Dr. Peters is also working with Dr. Mahaffey to help students convert a home near the Augustana campus into an environmental theme house which features highly efficient heating and cooling systems, rain barrels to collect stormwater runoff, energyefficient light bulbs and appliances and other systems to reduce the home's environmental footprint.