Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emeritus in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...

(UVM). She is a writer, a practicing Soto Zen Buddhist, and an active proponent of religious dialogue. She taught religion and ecology. She combines an academic background in science, education, and theology in her writing, which is often categorized under the term

spiritual ecology Spiritual ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia recognizing that there is a spiritual facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and earth stewardship. Proponents of Spiritual Ecology assert a ne ...

. After 24 years at UVM, she retired in 2015.

Education

Stephanie Kaza attended Sunset High School in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, where she graduated in 1964. She went on to Oberlin College for a BA in

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and the Stanford Graduate School of Education for an M.A. in education, finishing in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Kaza earned her PhD in

at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

in 1979. In 1991, Kaza finished work at the

Starr King School for the Ministry Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Oakland, California. The seminary was formed in 1904 to educate leaders for the growing number of progressive religious communities in the western part of the US. The scho ...

, earning a Master of Divinity degree. She studied with

Thich Nhat Hanh Thích is a name that Vietnamese monks and nuns take as their Buddhist surname to show affinity with the Buddha. Notable Vietnamese monks with the name include: * Thích Huyền Quang (1919–2008), dissident and activist * Thích Quảng Độ ( ...

and

Joanna Macy Joanna Rogers Macy (born May 2, 1929) is an environmental activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. She is the author of twelve books. She was married to the late Francis Underhill Macy, the activist ...

Career

Kaza has worked as a high school,

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

, and university teacher. She has been a lecturer, instructor for the Sierra Wilderness Institute, education director for the

Point Reyes Bird Observatory Point Blue Conservation Science, founded as and formerly named the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO), is a California-based wildlife conservation and research non-profit organization. Overview Point Blue was founded in 1965 to study bird migra ...

, and education coordinator at the

University of California Botanical Garden The University of California Botanical Garden is a 34-acre (13.7 ha) botanical garden located on the University of California, Berkeley campus, in Strawberry Canyon. The garden is in the Berkeley Hills, inside the city boundary of Oakland, with ...

. Kaza began her work at the

(UVM) in 1991 as an assistant professor and became a full professor in 2005. At UVM, she taught both undergraduate and graduate students in the field of environmental humanities, which comprises religion and ecology,

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement to address the unfair exposure of poor and marginalized communities to harms from hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses.Schlosberg, David. (2007) ''Defining Environmental Justic ...

, American

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

philosophers A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, issues of

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and culture in

natural resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. ...

, ecofeminism, and issues related to

consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the su ...

. In February 2016, she was named one o
five recipients
of a Retired Scholars Award at UVM for the 2015-16 academic year. Outside the academic walls of UVM, Kaza serves as President of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. She participates in the Religion and Ecology group of the American Academy of Religion. She writes a regular ecology column for Turning Wheel,

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

of the

Buddhist Peace Fellowship The Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF) is a nonsectarian international network of engaged Buddhists participating in various forms of non-violent social activism and environmentalism. The non-profit BPF is an affiliate of the international Fellowship ...

Personal life

Upon retiring, Kaza returned to her hometown of Portland, Oregon with her husband
artist Davis TeSelle
She remains active i
local environmental issues

Selected works

Books

*Kaza, Stephanie. '' The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees'' (Fawcett, 1993). *Kaza, Stephanie, and Kenneth Kraft, eds. ''Dharma Rain'' (Shambhala, 2000). *Kaza, Stephanie, ed. ''Hooked!: Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume'' (Shambhala, 2005). *Kaza, Stephanie. ''Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking'' (Shambhala, 2008). *LeBouef, Burney J. and Stephanie Kaza, eds. ''Natural History of Ano Nuevo'' (Boxwood Press, 1981).

Articles online

Acting with CompassionThe Attentive HeartA Buddhist Response to Paul Ingram

References

Sources

Profile of Kaza

with Kaza *Stephanie Kaza'
UVM website

External links

Link
to Kaza's articles in The Trumpeter, Journal of Ecosophy
Monastic Interreligious DialogueWhole Terrain
link to Kaza's articles published in Whole Terrain {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaza, Stephanie Living people American women writers American environmentalists American women environmentalists American Zen Buddhists Oberlin College alumni Stanford University alumni Starr King School for the Ministry alumni Sunset High School (Beaverton, Oregon) alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni 21st-century American women Year of birth missing (living people)