Dewey W. Hall is the editor and a contributing author to a new book that shows how writers contributed to environmental activism.
The book is titled “Romantic Ecocriticism: Origins and Legacies” published by Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield.
Hall has been an English professor at Cal Poly Pomona since 2003 and has always had a passion for writing. Over the past five years, he has taught students about nineteenth-century British Romantic literature and its connection to the environment. Hall has followed the “learn-by-doing” approach by allowing students to interact with the environment around them and teaching them the value of ecosystems within certain biomes.
Hall’s interest in writing led him to compose his first work, which was a single-author book titled “Romantic Naturalists, Early Environmentalists: An Ecocritical Study, 1789–1912.” His most recent book “Romantic Ecocriticism: Origins and Legacies” examines how nineteenth-century writers helped motivate activism for the environment near the end of that century. Hall says that his book is so unique because it is both transnational and transhistorical when examining the environmental aspects in British and American Romanticism.
“Romantic Ecocriticism” features a collection of essays from authors from multiple countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and England, giving this book a diverse and international perspective. Hall said he hopes his book and scholarship will influence generations of researchers and students to come about protecting and sustaining the environment.
Hall desires to leave a lasting impact on the world by portraying the importance of the environment through his teaching and writing.
“Through my research and teaching here at Cal Poly Pomona, my aim has been to impart to undergraduate and graduate students the important place we occupy as stewards responsible for the care of our surroundings within the biosphere,” he says.