William S. Lynn, Research Scientist
The George Perkins Marsh Institute
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610-1477
598.395.7764 phone
email: williamlynn@practicalethics.net
or www.practicalethics.net
Current Research Interests
Bill's research and teaching focus on ethics and public policy, with an emphasis on environmental discourse, human-animal relations, and participatory governance. Standing astride the environmental humanities and social sciences, Bill uses practical ethics and interpretive policy analysis to explore how moral norms shape public policy.
He is a founding editor of the international journal Ethics, Policy and Environment (formerly Ethics, Place and Environment), former chair of the Ethics Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and an International Associate of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies. As former Director of the Masters in Animals and Public Policy program at Tufts University, and a visiting professor at Williams College, he taught courses in animal studies, environmental studies, ethics, qualitative research, and public policy.
Having served as a research scholar at ethics and policy think tanks, Bill also works as a consultant and keynote speaker, helping the public, private and non-profit sectors expand their toolbox for policy-making. He has worked on a wide range of local and global problems, including sustainable forestry, wolf recovery, urban wildlife management, the North Atlantic seal hunt, and global sustainability.
Selected Publications
Lynn, William S. 2011. Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest: An Ethics Brief. Worcester, Massachusetts: George P. Marsh Institute, Clark University, 70 pp.
Lavigne, David and William S. Lynn. 2010. Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt: It's More Than a Question of Humane Killing (co-authored with David Lavigne). Journal of Animal Ethics 1 (1), 1-5.
Lynn, William S. 2010. Discourse and Wolves: Science, Society and Ethics. Society & Animals 18 (1): 75-92.
Lynn, William S. 2009. Ethics and Geography. In Barney Worf (editor) Sage Encyclopedia of Geography. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Lynn, William S. 2008. Animal Studies. In Marc Bekoff (editor) Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. Second edition. Westport: Greenwood Press, 42-45.
Hadidian, Johh, Camilla Fox and William S. Lynn. 2008. Urban Wildlife. In Marc Bekoff (editor) Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare. Second edition. Westport: Greenwood Press, 565-568.
Lynn, William S. 2007. Practical Ethics and Human-Animal Relations. In Marc Bekoff (editor) Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships. Westport: Greenwood Press, 790-797.
Lynn, William S. 2007. Wolf Recovery. In Marc Bekoff (editor) Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships. Westport: Greenwood Press, 812-819.