15 Facts About Carolyn Merchant

Carolyn Merchant's works are important in the development of environmental history and the history of science.

Carolyn Merchant is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics at UC Berkeley.

In 1954, as a high school senior, Merchant was among the Top Ten Finalists for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.

Carolyn Merchant was a visiting professor at Oregon State University in the History of Science Department and General Science Department in 1969.

Carolyn Merchant has been a member of the History of Science Society since 1962.

Carolyn Merchant has been a member of the American Society for Environmental History since 1980 and has held positions such as vice-president and president in addition to serving as associate Editor of the Environmental Review and as a member of the Rachel Carson Prize Committee for best dissertation.

Carolyn Merchant retired in 2018 and since then has been Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley.

Carolyn 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.

Carolyn Merchant has presented over 360 lectures in the United States, Canada, Europe, Brazil, and Australia.

In 1971 Carolyn Merchant was one of the first women to be invited to join the exclusive History of Science Dinner Club at Berkeley.

Carolyn Merchant argues that prior to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century, nature was conceived of as the benevolent mother of all things, albeit sometimes wild.

However, Carolyn Merchant was not the first to present ecofeminist ideals and theories.

In Radical Ecology, Carolyn Merchant argues that laws, regulations, and scientific research alone cannot reverse the spread of pollution or restore dwindling resources.

Carolyn Merchant explores the problems, ideas, and actions that will make society rethink, reconstruct, and reinvent its relationships with non-human nature in search of a livable world.

Carolyn Merchant has written more than 100 single-authored research articles.