Ken Hiltner

Ken Hiltner

Ken Hiltner received his PhD from Harvard University, where he garnered a number of distinctions as a researcher and Teaching Fellow, including the Bowdoin Prize. His first book, Milton and Ecology (Cambridge University Press, 2003), explored the ideological underpinnings of our current environmental crisis by way of Milton’s radical reevaluation of dualistic theology, metaphysical philosophy, and early modern subjectivism. He has recently edited a collection of essays, Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Milton's England (Duquesne University Press 2008), in which the contributors consider, through both literature and the visual arts, the question of how human beings in the Renaissance imagined an ideal relationship with the earth. His next book project, entitled On the Nature of Art, explores the tension between culture, art, and nature. He also has over a dozen essays published or in the works. Prior to becoming an English professor, he made his living as a furniture-maker. As a second-generation woodworker, he received commissions from five continents and had collections featured in major metropolitan galleries.

Ken Hiltner is Director of Literature and the Environment at UCSB for 2008-09. See the L&E website for complete details:

Ken Hiltner is also Director of the Early Modern Center at UCSB for 2008-09. See the EMC website for details:

Ken Hiltner is also Chair of the Graduate Committee for 2008-09. See the Graduate website.

Areas of Interest

• Renaissance Literature
• Literature and the Environment
• Literary Theory
• Greek, Roman, and German Literature
• Philosophy (Especially Contemporary Continental)
• The History of Ideas
• The Future of Our Planet

Books and Recent Articles

• Milton and Ecology, (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Milton's England, (Duquesne University Press, 2008).

• "Shirley and the Luddites," Bronte Studies (2008).
• "'Belch’d fire and rowling smoke': Air Pollution in Paradise Lost," Milton, Rights and Liberties: Essays from the Eighth International Milton Conference (2006).
• "Ripeness: Thoreau’s Critique of Technological Modernity," The Concord Saunterer, Special Walden Sesquicentennial Issue (2004).
• "The Ecological Importance of Place in Paradise Lost," American Literary Criticism Now (2004).
• "A Defense of Milton’s Environmentalism." English Language Notes (2003).
• "The Portrayal of Eve in Paradise Lost: Genius at Work," Milton Studies (2001).
• "Because I, Persephone, Could Not Stop for Death: Emily Dickinson and the Goddess," The Emily Dickinson Journal (2001).
• "Place, Body and Spirit Joined: The Earth-Human Wound in Paradise Lost," Milton Quarterly (2001).
• "The Other Self in a Reunified Germany: Reconsidering Peter Schneider’s The Wall Jumper," The Journal of GLS (2001).

Current Projects

Current projects include a book and four articles:

• On the Nature of Art: Essential Questions in Environmental Criticism

• "Renaissance Literature and Our Contemporary Attitude Toward Global Warming"
• "Dread, Technology, and Eve’s Fall in Paradise Lost"
• "Spencer, Empire, and Ecology"
• "Environmental Protest Literature in Renaissance England"