OFFICIAL BIOElizabeth Allison, PhD, is a leader in the field of Religion & Ecology, and an environmental social scientist who studies the convergence of religion and ethics with environmental policy and practice.
She is Professor of Ecology and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, where she founded and chairs the graduate program in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion and created the Religion & Ecology Summit series of annual conferences. She is a member of the Advisory Group for the Yale Forum on Religion & Ecology; an editorial board member for the journal Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology; and the Secretary of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture.
Dr. Allison is co-editor of After the Death of Nature: Carolyn Merchant and the Future of Human-Nature Relations (2019). She is currently writing a book about how religion affects environmental policy and practice in Bhutan, as well as leading the social science component of the transdisiciplinary, transnational Life Without Ice research project exploring the consequences of glacier extinction with the Institute of Research for Development in France and other international partners. She researches traditional ecological knowledge in mountain regions, particularly as it relates to biodiversity, waste, ecological place, and climate change. Her articles appear in journals including WIREs Climate Change, Religions, Mountain Research and Development, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture, and in edited volumes on Bhutan, religion, nature, and geography.
A former Fulbright scholar in Nepal, she holds PhD and master’s degrees in environmental management from the University of California, Berkeley and Yale University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in religion from Yale Divinity School and Williams College.
A treehugger since forever, with coast redwoods at Prairie Creek State Park, Northern California.
Wearing Bhutanese traditional dress, with research collaborator Prem Kumari at Trashigang Dzong, Trashigang, eastern Bhutan
MY STORYMy interest in the intersections of religion and ecology began during a college trek in the Himalayas.
In a college course on Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, I read Peter Mattheissen’s The Snow Leopard. Inspired by the geographic and spiritual terrain he described, I immediately decided to study abroad for a semester in Nepal. For a midwestern kid, who hadn’t traveled farther than England, this was a big step!
Trekking in the Annapurna region of the Himalayas, I saw sacred trees garlanded with ribbons and cloth. For the first time, I realized that others — particularly in non-Western religious traditions — found spirituality in nature just as I did.
I spent the rest of the semester living in a mountain village and conducting research on beliefs and practices related to Machhapuchhare, the sacred mountain in the Annapurna range near the border with Tibet.
My enduring curiosity about the intersection of religion with ecology and nature led me to create a unique path through academia. I earned two master’s degrees — one in religion, the other in environmental management — at Yale University, while initiating research in Himalayan Bhutan, which I continued during my doctoral studies in environmental management at the University of California - Berkeley.
I’ve continued to return to the Himalayas over the years to investigate the role of religion in environmental perceptions, and have been delighted to extend my geographic range to the Andes, the Alps, and my local Sierra Nevada mountains.
Much like I was once inspired by a book and a trek, I seek to educate and energize transformational leaders to contribute to the greater flourishing of life on Earth.
Recent Research, Articles & Lectures
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