Joseph Siry's VITA

Deluged by details most people are unable to determine important from trivial known facts. Some practitioners and specialists are unable to distinguish known facts from fantasies, or fictions.

Fictions are elaborate stories that assist people in understanding an otherwise confusing situation. Some specific legal fictions are created by well meaning folks to generate certainty. The need for certainty where, too often, there is only vague feelings, unexamined emotions or prejudices that shape our "misunderstanding" of everyday events, is understandable.

An overt goal of all my classes is to challenge our shared prejudices and examine our follies in the light of gentle dialogue. This is done with respect for you as a source of individually inherent value. The aim of this challenge is to allow you to exercise good judgment in distinguishing between trustworthy, widely accepted facts and erroneous but commonly held fictions. 

Unless we practice reasoned discourse, respect for the beliefs of others, and an honest commitment to substantiated facts we run the risk of indoctrination. Any set of unexamined ideas that rest on shared fictions has the potential of leading us toward a fatally flawed, fascistic acceptance of the "general will." One purpose of a Liberal Arts education is to nourish the soul to unshackle the mind to behave in ways that harm no one.

brief biographical data.

My mission.

motivation.

My book.

Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia, 2000; Barbara Siry.

Here are some more pages to assist you in what you need to know about me as an educator.

Historian of Science, Technology and Environment

B.A., Emory University; M.A., Ph.D.. University of California at Santa Barbara
 

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My mission is to stimulate inquiry and offer participants in my classes opportunities to think critically about ecological and social problems in order to solve complex disputes about policy by applying, when appropriate,  a body of scientific and technical knowledge.

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VITA

JOSEPH VINCENT SIRY 
2648 Brookside Court 
Maitland, Florida  32751
407.629.6564 
Fax 407.628.2496

Director, environmental management    Rollins Brevard, Melbourne, FL

http://web.rollins.edu/~jsiry                  DOB: December 1, 1949 

Rollins College, Winter Park  32789        Miami Beach, Florida 
 

EDUCATION

1971   BA with High Honors in History, Emory University 

1978   MA in History, University of California at Santa Barbara 

1981   Ph.D. in History, University of California at Santa Barbara 

EXPERIENCE

1972-1973  Lecturer/Teaching Assistant, Department of History, 
    Middle Tennessee State University 

1975-1978  Teaching Assistant, Department of History,  Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies Departments, U. of California: Santa Barbara 

1976-1978  Lecturer in Environmental History, University of California Extension, 
    Santa Barbara, CA 

1978   History Instructor, Social Science Department, Santa Rosa Junior College, 
    Santa Rosa, CA 

1978-1983  Instructor, History and Social Sciences Department, Solano Community College,     Suisun City, CA 

1979-1981  Public Historical Consultant, Local Coastal Plan, Sonoma County 
    Planning Department, Santa Rosa,  CA 

1980-1981  Staff Assistant, State Office of Historic Preservation, Sacramento, CA 

1981-1982  Historical Consultant, Oakland Cultural Heritage Survey, 
    Oakland City Planning Department, CA 

1981   Lecturer, Environmental Studies, University of California Extension, 
    Berkeley, CA 

1982-1983  Chapman College, Environmental Science Instructor, (field studies) 
    Solano & Napa Counties, CA 

1984   Assistant Professor of History, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA 

1984-1988  Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies,  Rollins College, Winter Park, FL 

1989-2004  Associate Professor of Environmental Studies,  Rollins College, Winter Park, FL

June 1999 - July 2002 Florida Climate Alliance (a.k.a.) Alliance for Florida's Future: 
    Director of statewide global warming campaign for
    Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, N.Y.
 
 

RELATED LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

2002  River Restoration Project Coordinator, Florida Defenders of the Environment, Gainesville,

1996-2004  Director of Environmental Management, Rollins Brevard Campus, Melbourne, FL

2001-2002  State Director, Natural Resources Defense Council's Florida Climate Alliance.

2001-2002  Executive Committee member, Florida Defenders of the Environment, Gainesville, FL 

1999-2001  State Coordinator, Alliance for Florida's Future, Winter Park, FL

1995-2000  Vice-president, Florida Defenders of the Environment, Gainesville, FL 

1996-1999  Member of the Board of Directors, Florida Audubon Society, Winter Park, FL 

1985-1995  Member Advisory Board, Florida Defenders of the Environment Gainesville, FL 

1986-1988  Secretary, City of Winter Park Environmental Review Board Winter Park, FL 

1986-1991  Editor, "Practicing Essentials," North American Environmental Education Association's Environmental Studies Section Newsletter 

1987-1988   Associate Editor, Bulletin of Human Ecology

1988-1993  Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, Applied Quantitative Systems, and Master of Liberal Studies Departments

1991-1993  Publications Review Committee: North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE)
 

Related Field Experience

July 1990 -   "Culture, Energy and Ecology around the World during the First Persian Gulf War."
January 1991   Tour of 21 countries including: Peru, Australia, India, and Africa.

June - Aug. 1991    Researcher-in-Residence: Evergreen State College, Department of History
    Olympia Washington.

June 2-14, 1992    Non governmental Organization (NGO) participant in Global Forum, 
    United Nations Conference on Conservation and Development, (U.N.C.E.D.) "Earth Summit"; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2-10, 1992.
 

Publications

Review article of The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, A History, for Journal of Environmental Education (Volume 33: Number 4, Summer 2002), pp. 40 41.

Population and Environment in a Global Perspective, (2004).

co-editor, ìFeeling the Heat in Florida: Global Warming on the Local Level.î with Fred Mays & Jeff Fiedler, October, 2001. (New York: Natural Resources Defense Council). An overview of scientists findings

Review article of Visions of Paradise, for Journal of Environmental Education (2000)

ìOur Common Task: Global Warming Solutions,î FDE Monitor, (Fall, 1999). [supplement] pp. 1-4.

"Saving the Blue Lagoon," Florida Naturalist, 72:2, (2d Quarter), May 1999. pp. 20-21.

Review article of Miller, Environmental History of Northeast Florida, for Journal of American History, (1999).

ìFlorida's Imperiled Future,î Proceedings of the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, March, 1997: Gainesville, University of Florida, 1997.

The Encyclopedia of Conservation and Environmentalism. Subjects: Coastal Zone Management Act (U.S.), Everglades, and Calvert Cliffs. Robert Paehlke, Editor. Trent University;  New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1994..

History of the Geosciences: An Encyclopedia, ìWetlands,î Gregory Good, Editor: West Virginia University; Garland Publishing Inc., New York. Proposed publication date, 1994.

Review article of Some Kind of Paradise: A Chronicle of Man and Land in Florida. Mark Derr, (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1989). Forest and Conservation History (1991).

Review article of Revitalizing the Waterfront, for Environmental History Review, (1990).

"Wetlands."  Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Center  for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989). 

"Habitat, wildlife & fisheries: An emerging web of relations in social & cultural history," Review article of three books:
Michael L. Smith, Pacific Visions: California Scientists and the Environment, (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1987); Arthur McEvoy, The Fisherman's Problem, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986); Thomas R. Dunlap, Saving America's Wildlife, (Princeton University Press, 1988).

Instructors Resource Manual for Environmental Studies. Daniel Botkin and Edward Keller. Westerville, Ohio: Merrill Publishing Co., 1987. 

"The Essential Atmosphere's Elementary Laws," Bulletin of Human Ecology, Vol. 1; #1 (Spring 1986), pp. 5-6.

Review Article of   When Government Regulates Itself: EPA, TVA, and Pollution Control in the 1970s. Robert F. Durant. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1985. Environmental Review, (Fall/Winter 1986).

Review Article of This Land is Your Land.  Bernard Shanks. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1984.   Environmental Review (Fall/Winter 1985).

Review Article of The Tule Breakers.  John Thompson and Edward A. Dutra. Stockton, Calif.: University of the Pacific, 1983.  Agricultural History 59:2 (April 1985) .

Marshes of the Ocean Shore: The Origins of an Ecological Ethic. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1984. 

Review article of This Land, This South.  Albert Cowdrey.  Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, 1983. Journal of the Early Republic (Spring 1984) .

Review article of Fate of the Earth. Jonathan Schell.  (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1982)  Environmental Review (Fall, 1983) .

Review article of Ecological Consciousness, eds. Robert C. Schultz and J. Donald Hughes (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1981). Environmental Review 6:2 (Fall, 1982) . "When the River Flows Upstream: The Appearance, Adaptation and Extinction of the Mandan Peoples." The Indian Historian XI:2 (1978).
 

Presentations

ìClimate Change and global warming: the challenges and opportunities for international solutions to sustain our Earth,î Slide presentation and speech: Sarasota Lifelong Learning Institute, March 6, 2000.

ìDeveloping Nations and the Costly Risks of Global Warmingî Georgetown American School, Georgetown, Guyana, May, 1999.

"Beyond the Wild Frontier: Wilderness and the American Imagination,î Slide lecture to the English Speaking Union, Rollins College, Bush Auditorium January, 1999.

 ìThe Science of the IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control,î Invited speaker: Town Hall Meeting on Climate Change, InterContinental Hotel, Miami, Florida, June 20, 1996.

ìBringing the Earth Summit into the Classroom and Out to the Community." World Congress for Education and Communication on Environment & Development Conference. Toronto, Canada, October 16-21, 1992.

Facilitator of Energy Treaty: negotiation International Non - governmental Organization Forum. United Nations Conference on Conservation and Development. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2-10, 1992.

Conference Organizer: "Earth day Symposium on Environmental Education," for Florida Department of Education and the East Central Florida Regional Service Project. Rollins College, April 20, 1991.

"Mechanical Metaphors: From Spaceship Earth to the Machinery of Nature" American Society of Environmental History Conference, Houston, March 1, 1991.

"Traces on the Floridian Shore: Technology and the reshaping of the environment," Florida International University, Faculty Lecture Series, Miami, March 4, 1990.

"The Dubious Atom: Public response to nuclear science from the  `Radium Craze' to Chernobyl," Invited paper; Cultural History Conference, New Orleans, March 20-23, 1988.

Principle Sponsor, "CUTHA comes to Florida;" Conference on the role of technology in Liberal Arts Education; [Council for the Understanding of Technology in Human Affairs] January 21-22, 1988.

"The Writing Across the Curriculum requirement at Rollins: a view from the Trenches,"  Annual Conference of Writing Program Administrators; Logan, Utah; August 7, 1987.

"Wildways and the evolving tradition of stewardship for wilderness,"  Environmental and Forest Historians' Conference, Duke University, April-May 1987.

"Florida's wildlife extinction and wilderness Conservation," Society for Human Ecology Annual Meeting, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, October 18, 1986. 

"Protecting Biocommunities that Sustain Human Civilization: The Global Case for Chesapeake Bay Restoration," North American  Association for Environmental Education, Washington, D.C., 
September 29, 1985. 

"Environmental Studies at Rollins: An International Approach," Panel Member; Society for Human Ecology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, April 30, 1985. 

"Environmental History in the Science Curriculum," Panel member;  North American Association for Environmental Education. Banff-Lake Louise, Canada, October 8, 1984. 

"Preservation of Coastal Wetlands," American Society of  Environmental Historians, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, April 10, 1983. 

"California State's Commitment to Historic Preservation," California Community College Social Science Association, Sacramento, Ca., March 16, 1981. 
 

Honors & Awards

Orange County Medical Society's Environmental Committee Earth Day Award   2002

Cypress Award: Sierra Club Florida Chapter's leadership prize    2000

Orange County Medical Society's Environmental Committee Service Award  2000

Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation's Florida Environmental Leader recognition 2000

Hugh McKean Memorial Grant: ìChildren of the Rain forestî    1999

Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation's Florida Environmental Leader recognition 1999

Sponsored Lecturer, Florida Endowment for the Humanities,     1991-1992

Outstanding Young Educator Award, Winter Park Jaycees and United Telephone,  1985
 

Community Service

Member of the Board of Trustees of Save the Manatee Club, Maitland, Florida. 2001-2004

Member of the Orange County Medical Society's Environmental Committee for Earth day, 1999-2001.

Member of the Science and Sanctuary Committee of Florida Audubon Society, 1996-1999.

Member of the Board of Directors, Florida Audubon Society, Winter Park, Florida, 1996-1999.

Member of the Orlando Science Center's Teacher Advisory Committee, 1990-1995.

Member of the Board of Trustees, Florida Defenders of the Environment, Gainesville, Florida; 1988-1998.

Member of the Board of Trustees, North American Association for Environmental Education, Troy, Ohio; 1989-1992.

Newsletter Editor, Environmental Studies Section of the North American Association for Environmental Education, 1987-1992.
 

 Curriculum Offerings

  Science and Policy in the Atomic Age: using knowledge from radiation to genetics. 

  International Environmental Policy: From Natural Rights theory to the rights of nature.

  History of Science: ancient, medieval, and modern. 

  History of Technology: ancient, medieval, and modern. 

  Human Ecology: energy, population, and resources in society (Service Learning study)

  History of Conservation: population and ecology

  Wilderness in the American Mind: (field study)

  Environmental Planning: post-modern ecological problems in resources and land use
 

Academic Service

 Member of the College Faculty's Executive Committee, 2001-2002

 Chair of the College Faculty's Finance & Budget Committee, 2001-2002

 Member & Secretary of the College Faculty's Finance & Budget Committee, 2000-2001

 Member of the Writing Center (TPJ) Faculty Advisory Committee, 1998-99

 Member of two Service Learning Committees (International & domestic) 1995-1999

 Member (and Secretary) of the College Academic Affairs Committee,  1993-1995 

 Member of the College Faculty's Executive Committee, 1991-1993

 Chair, Student Life Committee, 1991-1993

 Outside member, Foreign Languages Evaluation Committee, 1988-1990

 Chair, Writing Across the Curriculum Committee, 1985-1988

 Member of the Pre law Advisory Committee, 1985-1992

 Chair, Pre law Advisory Committee, 1988-1990

 Chair, International Special Program Committee, 1987-1988

 Faculty Representative, Master of Liberal Studies Committee, 1987-88

 Core Faculty, Master of Liberal Studies Program, Hamilton Holt School, 1987-2004

 Faculty Representative, "N-Task force," Natural Sciences requirement review & recommendation   Committee proposed an increase in the natural sciences courses for the College's General   Education requirements.       1986-87
 

REFERENCES

Name and Position    Home Address
Dr. Patricia Lancaster 
Dean of the Hamilton Holt School 
1000 Holt Avenue, Box 2725 
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 646-2355

Dr. Richard Lima     1924 Loch Berry Road
Associate Professor    Winter Park, FL 32792
1000 Holt Avenue, Box 2634   (407) 647-5191
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 646-2119

Dr. Dan Lashof
Climate Center
Natural Resources Defense Council
1200 New York Avenue N.W. 
Washington, DC 20005

Alyson Flournoy, J.D.
Professor of Law
University of Florida Law School
Gainesville, Florida
(352) 392-2268     (352) 374-4364

Dr. Pedro Pequeno     2086 Sussex Road
Professor of Anthropology    Winter Park, FL 32792
Director of the      (407) 657-6245
Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Program 
1000 Holt Avenue, Box 2761 
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407)646-1565
 

University Level  Academic Fields of Study 

 §  Modern Intellectual, Social, Cultural and Environmental History, University of California at Santa Barbara

  Studies in US History: Intellectual, Social and Environmental History. 
    Professor Emeritus, Roderick Nash. 

  Studies in US History: Colonial, Frontier and  Indian/White Relations.
    Professor Emeritus, Wilbur R. Jacobs. (deceased)

  Studies in the History of Science: Arms Race Technology and  Atomic Age. 
    Professor Lawrence Badash. 

  Studies in Human Ecology: Population, Resources and Energy Policies, Biological Ideas.        Professor Emeritus, Garrett Hardin.

 §§ Modern Diplomatic and Latin American Cultural and Economic History, Middle Tennessee State University

  Studies in US History: International relations and Diplomatic  History. 
    Professor Norman Ferris. 

  Studies in Latin American History: Colonial, Frontier and  Indian/White Relations. 
    Professor James Neal.

 §§§ Modern American and European History, Emory University

  Studies in US Southern and Civil War History: Diplomatic  History. 
    Professor Emeritus, Bell Irvin Wiley. (Deceased)

  Studies in American History: Cultural and  Intellectual History. 
    Professor Emeritus, James Harvey Young.