Renowned Advocate For Agricultural Sustainability to Present Opening Convocation

Gary Paul Nabhan, PhD, a globally recognized food and farming advocate and conservationist, will present Carleton’s opening convocation on Monday, September 14, 2009, at 3 p.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Nabhan’s address, titled “Renewing America’s Food Traditions,” centers on his extensive involvement in various grassroots initiatives that promote agricultural sustainability. The opening convocation is an all-college annual celebration of the new academic year and recognizes academic achievement. Prior to the convocation, Carleton will award Nabhan with an honorary degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa. This special event is free and open to the public.

Dubbed the father of the local food movement by Mother Earth News, Nabhan has authored more than twenty books on natural history, conservation, and sustainable agriculture, including “Coming Home to Eat” (W.W. Norton & Co, reissue edition July 2009), “The Forgotten Pollinators” (Island Press, June 1997), and “Why Some Like It Hot: Foods, Genes, and Cultural Diversity” (Island Press, June 2006), which have been translated in more than five languages. In addition to his literary works, Nabhan lectures at universities in Mexico, Lebanon, Peru, Oman, Guatemala, and Italy. He recently received a tenured professorship as a Research Social Scientist based at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona, his alma mater. He teaches geography, and also engages with graduate students and faculty involved in reconciliation ecology research.

Nabhan founded the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, where he directed and coordinated numerous environmentally oriented initiatives and programs designed to bridge the NAU campus with the surrounding region. He also taught as a tenured professor in Applied Indigenous Studies and the Center for Environmental Sciences and Education, while overseeing the Graduate Certificate program in Conservation Ecology. Nabhan is also the co-founder of Renewing America’s Food Traditions Alliance, Native Seeds/SEARCH, Canyon Country Fresh Food Network, Flavors Without Borders, Foodways Alliance, and Amazon Conservation Team.

Nabhan has received global recognition for his grassroots conservation work, including a cover story in Time magazine on the burgeoning locavore movement in the United States and beyond. He has been honored with the John Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing, a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship in Conservation and Environment, and a Quivara Coalition award for excellence in science that contributes to the “radical center.” In addition to the research and work involved in such achievements, Nabhan enjoys gardening, caring for heritage breeds of sheep and turkeys, and participating in local food movements.

The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located off First and College Streets in Northfield. For more information regarding this convocation, please contact the Carleton College Office of College Relations at (507) 222-4308.