Recent research, publication and teaching activities are posted individually (see bottom of the page).  Check by category below for up-to-date information on scholarship and student supervision.

Academic background

• AB, Barnard College, Columbia University (Biology)
• PhD, Cornell University (Botany – Plant ecology)
• MA, Fuller Seminary (Theology)
• Graduate Certificate in Environmental Ethics, University of
  Georgia
• PhD, University of Texas at Dallas (Humanities)

Areas of expertise:

• Environmental ethics
• Christian environmental theology
• Environmental and landscape history
• Forest ecology 
• Management of parks and natural areas

I am the author of four books on Christianity, spirituality and environmental ethics. The most recent is The Spirit of the Appalachian Trail: Community, Environment, and Belief on a Long-Distance Hiking Path. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2012.    I previously published: Environmental Values in Christian Art (SUNY Press); Six Billion and More: Human Population Regulation and Christian Ethics, and Christianity Wilderness and Wildlife: The Original Desert Solitaire. I presently teach courses in environmental subfields such as conserving biodiversity, forest ecology, and environment and society. My career began with the U.S. National Park Service, when I served as director of a field laboratory in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and as coordinator of a research cooperative at the Institute of Ecology,  University of Georgia.  In addition to publishing numerous scientific articles on subjects ranging from fire management in parks, to the impacts of wild hogs, to restoration of disturbed high mountain floras, I have been writing and teaching in the environmental ethics.  My recent field projects and those conducted by my graduate and undergraduate students include studies of historic landscape change and invasion by exotic plant species. I have also recently published articles and book chapters on ecology and religion, Rachel Carson and ocean ethics, the ethics of commercial fishing, and Christian ecotheology and the Hebrew Scriptures.  I love teaching, especially in the field.  Other passions include hiking, old time music, and Baylor Sports, particularly Lady Bears Basketball.  Susan Bratton resume     A short list of the last four years of publications is attached for anyone interested just in recent scholarly activity.  Most recent publications 2009 to 2012