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Dr. Zachary Piso is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a Sustainability Scholar through the Hanley Sustainability Institute. His work explores the social and ethical values at stake in environmental science, especially in interdisciplinary environmental research that draws on the social sciences in explanations of environmental change and resilience.

recently, he explored ethical and epistemic questions arising in food systems research, including an ongoing study of ecological citizenship and environmental governance in Rust Belt urban agriculture. These public philosophical engagements emphasize stakeholder engagement and participatory methodologies that tie together interests in environmental philosophy, philosophy of science and American pragmatism.

Courses Taught

• PHL 103: Intro to Philosophy
• PHL 321: Environmental Ethics
• SEE 401: Sustainability Research I
• SEE 402: Sustainability Research II

Research Interests

• Environmental philosophy
• Values in science
• Interdisciplinarity
• American Pragmatism

Selected Publications

Piso, Z. (2021). Netting Nemo: A moral ontology for the scaled and slimy. Between the Species 24(1): 51-69. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/vol24/iss1/4/

Piso, Z. (2020). Ecological citizens and urban agriculture: A public philosophical inquiry. Minding Nature 12(2): 28-32. https://www.humansandnature.org/ecological-citizens-and-urban-agriculture

Piso, Z. (2019). Integrating facts and values in explanations of social-ecological resilience. In H. Keith & K. Parker (Eds.), Pragmatist and American Philosophical Perspectives on Resilience. Lexington Books.

Valles, S., Piso, Z., and O’Rourke, M. (2019). "Coupled ethical-epistemic analysis as a tool for environmental science." Ethics, Policy, and the Environment 22(3): 267-286. https://doi.org/10.1080/21550085.2019.1652288

Piso, Z., Goralnik, L., Libarkin, J. and Lopez, M. C. (2019). "Types of urban agricultural stakeholders and their understandings of governance." Ecology and Society 24(2): 18. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10650-240218