Dr. James Dow

Board of Directors

Hendrix College and Wildland Gardens | 2026-2028

Dr. James M. Dow is Professor of Philosophy at Hendrix College, Marshall T. Steel Center Chair for the Study of Religion and Philosophy, and Chair of Environmental Studies. Dow teaches courses in the departments of philosophy, cognitive science, and environmental studies focusing on philosophy of mind, environmental philosophy, action theory, and aesthetics. Dow teaches courses on the intellectual history of aesthetics, empirical aesthetics, nature aesthetics, and aesthetics and contemporary art. Since completing his Ph.D. at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2011, he has published articles on self-consciousness, expert bodily action, joint action, environmental disobedience, and nature aesthetics. Dow is working on a book– Expressing Nature’s Value – which argues for an expressivist approach to environmental value focusing on the aesthetic engagement with the beauty, sublimity, wonder, and wildness of natural environments. Dow is an ultra-runner having completed a 100-mile trail run, is obsessed with post-rock music and contemporary art, lives on an Eco-farm Wildland Gardens with Melissa Cowper-Smith, a Canadian mixed media artist, and makes dreamgaze post-punk music with his band THISNESS who recently released an album called “Chimera.”