Bill Vitek, Ph.D.
As a Senior Scholar with the Center for Humans and Nature I worked on two projects: 1) A co-edited collection, with Wes Jackson, titled The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge (University Press of Kentucky, 2008). The collection contains a number of essays from authors currently, or at one time, associated with the Center. The second project was a collection of essays titled Post-Carbon Sense. It remains unfinished, although one essay (“These Revolutionary Times”) has been published and reprinted in a number of small publications.
About Dr. Vitek
Bill Vitek is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, where he has taught for twenty two years. He is currently visiting Williams College for the 2010-11 academic year as the W. Ford Schumann ’50 Professor in Democratic Studies. With a B.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Union College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Vitek’s research and writings are focused on the intersection between social practices and the environmental, cultural, and historical contexts in which they occur. His current focus is on the substantial cultural and social changes that will be necessary—in our lifetimes—to live without easy access to cheap, carbon-based energy in the form of soils, forests, oil, natural gas and coal.
Bill Vitek is also the author of one book, Promising; the co-editor of three books: Applying Philosophy (with Terrell Ward Bynum); Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place (with Wes Jackson); and The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability and the Limits of Knowledge (with Wes Jackson). He is the author of popular essays and articles on professional ethics, community, and public life. He is currently writing a book of his own essays titled Post-Carbon Sense. He was a 2007 Visiting Scholar with The Center for Humans and Nature and with The Land Institute.
Vitek co-founded and directed Clarkson’s Environmental Science & Policy Program for eight years, and was Associate Director of Clarkson’s Center for the Environment for four years. He directed Clarkson’s 2001-02 Sustainability Initiative. Vitek has won numerous teaching and advising awards at Clarkson, including the Distinguished Teaching Award and the Phalanx Award for “outstanding leadership qualities and quality participation in organizations with Clarkson and the Potsdam community.”
Vitek is also a jazz pianist. He co-wrote and co-produced three collections of jazz nursery rhymes. “Rhythm and Rhymes” (1982) was awarded an American Library Association “Notable Children’s Recording,” and the Oppenheim Gold Seal “Best Audio Award.” “Go with the Flow” (1994) was awarded Family Life’s Critic’s Choice Award. He currently performs with bassist Dan Gagliardi. They recently released “A Fine Line,” a collection of jazz classics.
