Greta Gaard

Greta Gaard's thinking emerges from the intersections of ecological feminism, environmental justice, and critical animal studies, exploring a wide range of issues, from children’s environmental literature and maternal profiling to multispecies justice, material perspectives on fireworks and space exploration, ecogenders and ecosexualities, critical ecofeminism, and the eco-politics of oil pipelines.

Gaard’s first anthology, Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature (1993), positioned multispecies justice as foundational to ecofeminist theory. Co-founder of Minnesota’s Green Party, Gaard details her experiences of the U.S. Green Party movement in the 1990s in Ecological Politics: Ecofeminists and the Greens (1998), a volume that ends with analysis of how the Nader Presidential campaign undermined the movement. Her volume of ecological creative nonfiction, The Nature of Home (2007), was followed by a co-edited volume, International Perspectives in Feminist Ecocriticism (2013), Critical Ecofeminism (2017), and her work initiating and co-editing the BifrostOnline special issue on Coronavirus and Climate Change (2020).

Gaard began practicing Vipassana meditation in 1995. Attending the 2015 Summer Session of the Association for the Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE) inspired her to explore strategies for integrating contemplative practices and anti-oppressive studies. Awarded a Think Tank Grant from the Mind and Life Institute, Gaard organized conversations and collaborations that later emerged in her volume co-edited with Bengu Erguner-Tekinalp, Contemplative Practices and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogies for Higher Education: Bridging the Disciplines (2022).

She is Professor of English and Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Her essays, articles, and books have been widely translated.