Baird Callicott: Always up for an intellectual challenge

Baird Callicott, professor of philosophy and religion studies, likes to be challenged. Whether it's through an already established political and social movement or through a movement he helped to start, Callicott seeks intellectual stimulation.

He became active in the Memphis, Tenn., civil rights movement of the 1960s while a faculty member at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis.

"They needed a faculty member to sponsor the Black Student Association in order for it to be recognized. Back then there were no African American faculty members at the university," Callicott says.

Callicott worked with organizers of the civil rights movement to plan campus activities supporting the Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike. Through this involvement, he met Martin Luther King Jr., who Callicott believes was the greatest American of the 20th century.

"Martin Luther King Jr. was so great because of his unwavering courage that culminated in the ultimate sacrifice he made for the civil rights movement. His dedication to nonviolent resistance also made him great," Callicott says.

Callicott later moved to Wis-consin to study environmental ethics at the University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point.

"I loved being active in the civil rights movement in Memphis. However, I found the movement more politically challenging than intellectually challenging. I wanted to take up a cause that was intellectually challenging for me as a philosopher," Callicott says. "The philosophy of civil rights had been thought out 200 years ago by philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. Environmental ethics was a completely novel idea and therefore presented a real philosophical challenge."

Callicott taught what is recognized as the first university course in the world on environmental ethics in 1971 while at the University of Wisconsin. He has also become one of the leading experts in the world on the work of Aldo Leopold, specifically A Sand County Almanac.

In 1995, Callicott came to UNT where he continues his studies of philosophy and environmental ethics and passes his knowledge on to his students.

BY ALLISON YEAMAN paiswri3@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue:

• UNT names Morton to system's governmental affairs office
• UNT style manual is now available online
• Texas Apartment Association chooses UNT to launch new management program
• UNT faculty member to live Olympic dream
• Survey applauds UNT's copyright ownership policy
• Wanted: Your ideas for celebrations honoring UNT athletic accomplishments
• UNT to present film series with multicultural relations focus
• Pohl speaks about the status of 2002-03 raises
• Registration is going on now for the 2002 Equity and Diversity Conference

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