Evelyn Brister Headshot

Evelyn Brister

Professor

Department of Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts
Program Director, Philosophy

Office Location

Evelyn Brister

Professor

Department of Philosophy
College of Liberal Arts
Program Director, Philosophy

Education

BA, Austin College; Ph.D., Northwestern University

Bio

Evelyn Brister’s research is in philosophy of science and environmental philosophy, with a focus on the role of values in land management and ecological applications.

Read More

Personal Links
Areas of Expertise

Select Scholarship

Full Length Book
Frodeman, Robert, Evelyn Brister, and Luther Propst. A Watershed Moment: The American West in the Age of Limits. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 2024. Print.
Brister, Evelyn and Robert Frodeman. A Guide to Field Philosophy: Case Studies and Practical Strategies. New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. Print.
Journal Paper
Brister, Evelyn, et al. "Advanced Cryopreservation as an Emergent and Convergent Technological Platform." Technology in Society 79. (2024): e102754. Print.
Brister, Evelyn, et al. "Manipulating Time by Cryopreservation: Designing an Environmental Future by Maintaining a Portal to the Past." Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 52. (2024): 637-647. Web.
Childress, James F., et al. "Ethical Issues in Emerging Technologies to Extend the Viability of Biological Materials across Time and Space." Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 52. (2024): 568-582. Web.
Show 7 More ↓
Invited Article/Publication
Brister, Evelyn. "Field Philosophy." Elgar Encyclopedia of Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity. (2024). Print.
Book Chapter
Brister, Evelyn. "The Value of Public Philosophy." The Blackwell Companion to Public Philosophy. Ed. Lee McIntyre, Nancy McHugh, & Ian Olasov. New York, NY: Wiley Blackwell, 2022. 41-52. Print.
Brister, Evelyn. "Feminism and Contextualism." Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism. Ed. Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa. New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. 57-67. Print.

Currently Teaching

PHIL-308
3 Credits
Environmental philosophy examines the ethical, metaphysical, and social justice questions surrounding human interactions with nature and the management of natural resources. This course explores the nature and source of environmental values and how environmental goals are achieved through policy decisions. We evaluate and apply philosophical and ethical theory to environmental issues such as endangered species, climate change, wilderness preservation, sustainability, and environmental justice.
PHIL-402
3 Credits
An examination of the nature of the scientific enterprise; possible discussion topics include the presuppositions of science, its logic, its claims to reliability, and its relationships to society and to problems of human values.
PHIL-406
3 Credits
This course examines developments in philosophy since 1900. During this time philosophy evolved along with science, politics, and the arts. In some cases philosophy responded to new discoveries and theories while at other times it precipitated movements that had far-reaching effects. A range of philosophical approaches may be discussed, including existentialism, experimental philosophy, feminist theory, hermeneutics, logical positivism, neo-pragmatism, phenomenology, and postmodernism. The connections among different approaches may also be addressed.
PUBL-201
3 Credits
This course focuses on the connections and interplay between personal and social values, ethics, and public policy. It explores how values and norms influence public policies and how the resulting expressions of values through public policies impact the implementation and effectiveness of policy choices. It also delves into how different countries make widely different policy choices based on their citizens’ values and social norms. The course also considers how new developments in science and technology influence the interplay between values, ethics, and policy across multiple issues. In addition, this course explores how to formulate values-based explanations of certain public policy preferences. Topics range across the policy issue spectrum.

In the News

  • December 8, 2021

    graphic reads Life, Edited.

    Hi-Phi Nation: Life, Edited 

    Slate Podcasts’ Hi-Phi Nation interviews Evelyn Brister, professor of philosophy,  about the ethics of bioengineering for conservation. Her portion begins around 14:45.