Gaard's work recognized by Chinese journal

University of Wisconsin-River Falls English Professor Greta Gaard will have her work honored in a scholarly journal in China. The dedication to her work is set to accompany the much anticipated translation and publication of her creative non-fiction book, “The Nature of Home,” into Chinese.

Beyond her accomplishments outside the university, Gaard also serves as coordinator of UWRF’s Sustainability Faculty Fellows, a group that has developed more than 45 interdisciplinary sustainability courses in every college on campus. The group is in process of institutionalizing their new program that will feature an interdisciplinary foundations course in sustain- able justice, and a capstone course with options for civic engagement, research, and experiential education.

Gaard’s passion permeates her classroom as she assigns an environmental essay in her advanced composition courses and brings forward her environmental concerns to “green” her business writing courses.

“UWRF students are a very practical group of learners,” said Gaard. “They want to test-drive the ideas we are studying. Through the experiential learning component in my Literature of Environmental Justice course, students have been able to explore the links between social justice and environ- mental health that we are reading about in class.”

“Dr. Gaard is a superb professor, talented writer and terrific colleague, said Brad Caskey, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “I am especially excited about her work being trans- lated in Chinese as this distinction fits so well with the UW- River Falls mission of helping students be productive, creative, ethical, engaged citizens and leaders with an informed global perspective.”

In addition to her teaching and sustainability leadership, Gaard also speaks at local, national, and international venues. She recently gave invited presentations for North Dakota State University, Ashland College, and Clarement Colleges Food Justice Summit. In May, Gaard will be speaking at the Goethe Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, and at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her sixth book, “Critical Ecofeminism,” will be published in fall 2016.

For more information about Gaard, or the programs offered through the UW-River Falls College of Arts and Sciences, visit http://www.uwrf.edu/cas.