Being Human

Ursula Heise is the Marcia H. Howard Chair in Literary Studies at UCLA. She is best known for her work in environmental criticism and environmental humanities, fields she began exploring in the late 90’s. Her 2008 book Sense of Place and Sense of Planet has been described as a landmark book for inaugurating attention to globalism in environmental thinking. This book was at the heart of a recent retrospective in the journal Resilience, which noted that her work has created a network of influence that spans oceans as well as disciplines. Professor Heise’s newest book is entitled Imagining Extinction: the Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species, published in 2016 with the University of Chicago Press.