Since the establishment of the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professorship in the Environment and the Humanities in 2007, the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) has forged ties between environmental studies and the humanities and social sciences at Princeton. Working cooperatively with leadership in Princeton’s humanities disciplines, HMEI identifies and appoints accomplished and emerging scholars whose academic work is at the intersection of a traditional humanities discipline and environmental studies. Recent visitors have had backgrounds in English, religion, philosophy, political science, photography and the performing arts.

Barron Visiting Professorship appointments are made jointly in HMEI and the academic department that most appropriately represents the appointee’s disciplinary background. Their scholarship has focused on topics including environmental literature, religion and ecology, environmental justice and racism, climate ethics and politics, climate change, and biodiversity. Barron professors engage in intensive projects and orchestrate public programs related to environmental themes, including the spring 2022 “High Water Line: New Jersey” project that chalked the state’s future shoreline as projected by science, and the 2018 traveling exhibition, “Nature’s Nation: American Art and the Environment,” curated in collaboration with the Princeton University Art Museum.

 

2025-2026 Barron Visiting Professor

Applications for the 2025-26 Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities are currently being accepted. Distinguished humanists whose work is related to the environment are encouraged to apply before 11:59 p.m. Nov. 1, 2024, to be given full consideration.

 

2023-2024 Barron Visiting Professor

Kevon Rhiney
2023-2024 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor in the High Meadows Environmental Institute, Anthropology, and African American Studies

Past Barron Visiting Professors

Christina Gerhardt
2021-22 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor in German and the High Meadows Environmental Institute
Meera Subramanian
2019-20 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Lecturer in English and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Fazal Sheikh
2018-19 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Ashley Dawson
2017-18 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor of English and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Alan Braddock
2016-17 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor of Art History & American Studies and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Daniel Barber
2015-16 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor of Architecture and the Princeton Environmental Institute
S. Eben Kirksey
2015-16 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor of Anthropology and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Jenny Price
2014-15 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Guest Artist at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University
Ken Hiltner
2012–13 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities and Visiting Professor of English and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Mary Evelyn Tucker
2012-13 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities and Visiting Lecturer in Religion and the Princeton Environmental Institute
John Grim
2012-13 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and Humanities and Visiting Lecturer in Religion and the Princeton Environmental Institute
Steve Cosson
2009-10 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Guest Artist at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University
Michael Friedman
2009-10 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Guest Artist at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University
David Schlosberg
2008-09 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Professor at the University Center for Human Values
Kimberly K. Smith
2007-08 Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Visiting Professor in the Environment and the Humanities and Visiting Associate Professor in the Center for African American Studies