Digital Humanities and Media Studies

University of Connecticut

Edwin Way Teale Lecture Series on Nature and the Environment

Thursday, October 10, 2024 at 4:00pm (EST)

John Vaillant

Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-nominated author of

Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World

“Fire and Oil: Coming to Terms with a More Flammable World”

Please join us for an in-person Teale lecture, on Thursday, October 10 at 4:00pm in the Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center for Human Rights on the UConn Storrs campus.

John Vaillant is an author and freelance writer based in Vancouver, BC whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Guardian, among others. His journalism, fiction, and non-fiction explore collisions between human ambition and the natural world. His latest book is the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in General Nonfiction, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (Knopf, 2023), a stunning account of a colossal wildfire and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind.

One of his earlier books, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Knopf, 2010), won the B.C. Achievement Award for Non-Fiction and was lauded as a “masterpiece” by OutsideMagazine: “What elevates The Tiger from adventure yarn to nonfiction classic is Vaillant’s mastery of language.”

Although the talk will be in-person, it is also available to watch (live) on Kaltura. The live stream link is on the Teale Series web page: https://cese.uconn.edu/the-edwin-way-teale-lecture-series/

This event is free and open to the public. If you need accommodation to access or participate, please contact CSMNHinfo@uconn.edu

• 10/10/24 - Fire and Oil: Coming to Terms with a More Flammable World
  • This is an Honors Event. See tags below for category information. #UHLevent10933

This panel discussion will feature advice from past and present UCHI fellows Yohei Igarashi, Laura Mauldin, and Anna Ziering, who have all been successful in their applications for different kinds of fellowships. Please be sure to bring along the first page of a draft of your own proposal (even in the very early stages) for workshopping and feedback.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to sign up for a fellowship application peer review group.

https://prelaw.uconn.edu/lawfair/

Title: Inquiry and Higher-Order Evidence

Abstract:                                                                                                                                                                                    What is the epistemic significance of higher-order evidence? Recently, philosophers have defended zetetic approaches to higher-order evidence, which appeal to factors related to inquiry and deliberation. According to these views, in response to higher-order evidence – for example, when you find out that an epistemic peer or superior disagrees with you concerning the answer to a question – you should open inquiry and deliberate upon the question further. While it can often be productive to deliberate or to double-check one’s reasoning when confronted with higher-order evidence, I argue that zetetic accounts are bound to be incomplete. They are unable to explain a range of important cases. Reflecting on these cases helps to make vivid a broader lesson concerning the relationship between inquiry and epistemic normativity. Epistemology never requires us to perform specific actions, such as evidence gathering, deliberation, or double-checking, even when these acts are required to settle the answers to our questions.