Biography
Carolyn Merchant, PhD, History of Science, 1967, is Distinguished Professor Emerita, Chancellor's Professor, and Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her landmark book, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution, has shaped the fields of the History of Science, Women's Studies, and Environmental History ever since its publication in 1980 (2nd edition, 1990, 3rd [40th anniversary] edition, 2020). The subject of over 130 reviews, major symposia, special journal sections, and keynote lectures worldwide, it has been translated into eight languages: Japanese (1985), German (1987, 1994 [mass market], 2020), Italian (1988), Swedish (1994), Chinese (1999), Korean (2005), Spanish (2020), French (2020), and Turkish (2022).
It was followed by ten additional single-authored books: Ecological Revolutions (1989); Radical Ecology (1992, 2012, 2014 [Korean], 1995; 2e, 2005); The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History (2002, paperback 2005); Earthcare (1996); Reinventing Eden (2003, paperback, 2004; 2e, 2013); American Environmental History (2007); Autonomous Nature (2015); Spare the Birds! (2016); Science and Nature (2018); and The Anthropocene and the Humanities (2020), along with three edited books: Key Concepts in Critical Theory: Ecology (1994, 2e, 2008), Green Versus Gold: Sources in California's Environmental History (2002, paperback, 2005), and a 3-person, co-edited Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (2004), 3 vols. In addition she has published over 100 single-authored peer-reviewed research articles. A festschrift, After the Death of Nature, and a symposium honoring her work appeared in 2018.
Merchant has been a Guggenheim fellow; a Fulbright scholar; a two-time fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; a fellow at the National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC; a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; and an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow. She has presented over 360 lectures in the United States, Canada, Europe, Brazil, and Australia. There are over 230 reviews and discussions of books written by Carolyn Merchant. She received the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) Distinguished Scholar Award in 2010 and the ASEH Distinguished Service Award in 2017.
Academic Positions
Distinguished Professor of Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics, emerita
Professor of the Graduate School and Chancellor's Professor emerita
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM)
University of California, Berkeley
Chair, Department of Conservation and Resource Studies, 1984-89
Chair, ESPM Division of Society and Environment, 2005-07
Degrees
- A.B. Vassar College, Chemistry, 1958
- M.A. History of Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1962
- Ph.D. History of Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1967
- Doctor Honoris Causa, Umea University, Sweden, 1995
- Doctor of Humane Letters, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA, 2018
Selected Honors and Fellowships
- American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, 1978, 2012
- Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences Fellow, 1978, 2017
- Fulbright Senior Scholar, Umea University, Sweden, 1984
- Visiting Professor, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, June, 1986
- American Cultures Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, June, 1990, 2002
- Visiting Fellow, School of Social Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth Australia, 1991
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 1995
- Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1998-present
- MacArthur Fellow in the Ecological Humanities, National Humanities Center, 2001
- President, American Society for Environmental History, 2001-2003
- UC Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, Career Achievement Award, 2008
- American Society for Environmental History, Distinguished Scholar Award, 2010
- American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow, 2011
- Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Member, 2012
- Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, 2017
- American Society for Environmental History, Distinguished Service Award, 2017
Books
- The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1980. 2nd ed. 1990. 3rd ed./40th anniversary edition, 2020. Translations: Japanese, German, Italian, Swedish, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, Turkish.
- Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989; 2nd ed. 2010.
- Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. N.Y.: Routledge, 1992 (also Japanese, Korean), 2nd ed. 2005.
- Major Problems in American Environmental History: Documents and Essays, edited with chapter introductions by Carolyn Merchant. Lexington, Ma: D. C. Heath, 1993; 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005; 3rd ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2012.
- Key Concepts in Critical Theory: Ecology, edited with an introduction by Carolyn Merchant. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1994; 2nd ed. Prometheus Press/Humanity Books, 2008.
- Earthcare: Women and the Environment. New York: Routledge, 1996.
- Green Versus Gold: Sources in California's Environmental History, edited with an introduction and conclusion by Carolyn Merchant. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998.
- Columbia Guide to American Environmental History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002; paperback 2005.
- Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture. New York, Routledge, 2003; paperback 2004; 2nd ed. 2013.
- Encyclopedia of World Environmental History, co-edited with John McNeill and Shepard Krech, III. New York: Routledge, 2004, 3 vols.
- American Environmental History: An Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
- Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control from Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution. New York: Routledge, 2016.
- Spare the Birds: George Bird Grinnell and the First Audubon Society. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
- Science and Nature: Past, Present, and Future. New York: Routledge, 2018.
- The Anthropocene and the Humanities: From Climate Change to a New Age of Sustainability. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020.