Inaugural Philip J. Otis Lectureship at Bates

Max Oelschlaeger, author of Caring for Creation, will deliver the inaugural Philip J. Otis Lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 29, in Chase Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. The lecture will focus on the relationship between human culture and the natural world. The public is invited to attend and admission is free.

Oelschlaeger, professor of philosophy and religion studies at the University of North Texas, wrote The Idea of Wilderness (Yale University Press 1994), which earned Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations in 1991. His forthcoming books are Nature’s Odyssey: Essays on Environment and Wilderness and Ecological Semiotics.

Established by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the Philip J. Otis Lectureship commemorates their son, Philip, a member of the Bates class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue an injured climber on Mt. Rainier in Summer 1995. Otis was deeply concerned about nurturing a sense of responsibility for the natural environment, and the annual lectureship will focus on environmental issues and the spiritual and moral dimensions of ecology.