Ryan Darr appointed to YDS faculty position in environmental ethics

March 27, 2024

YDS Dean Greg Sterling made the following announcement today.

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I am happy to announce that Ryan Darr ’19 Ph.D. has been appointed to the YDS faculty position in environmental ethics. Dr. Darr will join our faculty next year as Assistant Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Environment.

Ryan Darr is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture at the Institute of Sacred Music. From 2019 to 2022, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Philosophy and Religion at the Princeton University Center for Human Values. He holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University.

Among other subjects, Dr. Darr concentrates his research on environmental ethics, multi-species justice, structural injustice, ethical theory, and the history of religious and philosophical ethics. His current book project draws from theology, philosophy, and literature to think ethically about the current extinction crisis, defending an ethical approach to extinction centered on environmental and multi-species justice. He is also developing an ongoing research project on the relationship between individual agency and responsibility and structural justice and injustice, with a particular focus on environmental and climate issues. Ryan’s first book, The Best Effect: Theology and the Origins of Consequentialism, was published by University of Chicago Press in 2023.

I am excited about Dr. Darr’s appointment. It will strengthen our teaching and scholarship in religion and the environment—an essential aspect of our work to prepare students to become apostles of the environment.

Please join me in welcoming Ryan Darr to the YDS faculty.