Willa Swenson-Lengyel

I teach courses in environmental ethics, religion and the environment, theology, and religious ethics. My goal is to help my students grapple with fundamental questions such as:

• What might it mean to live a good life in a world shot through by injustice and tragedy?
• How does environmental harm inflect and intensify those injustices and tragedies? How does understanding our environmental context impact our understanding of what it means to live well?
• How might religious symbols, rituals, and intellectual traditions help us to make sense of ourselves, our societies, and our place in the natural world?

Much of my research focuses on inaction in the face of climate change. I ask: why is inaction so persistent, especially among privileged and powerful actors, when the consequences of such inaction are practically and morally disastrous? I have drawn on religious, philosophical, and social scientific research in answering this question. In relation to these concerns, I have published several articles: on the role of hope and hopelessness in climate inaction; on the desires for ‘environmental purity’ as they influence climate inaction; and on the role that ‘apocalyptic imagination’ plays in climate inaction.

My recent work has turned to examine what the moral life looks like for those undergoing natural and environmental catastrophes. I am particularly focused on the way in which undergoing catastrophe can reveal aspects of being human and living morally that may not be apparent in safer, more controlled circumstances.

I am new to Davidson College in Fall 2022. I am coming from Villanova University, where I held a Catherine of Siena Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ethics from 2018-2022. I have also held a research fellowship with the Templeton sponsored project, “Collaborative Inquiries in Christian Theological Anthropology” from 2021-2023.