Environmental Science
Susan P. Bratton, Ph.D.
- Professor Emeritus
Dr. Susan Power Bratton is accepting selected speaking, reviewing, and contributed chapter invitations. She is not accepting any new graduate or undergraduate research students.
Dr. Susan Power Bratton, Professor Emerit, has two PhDs, one from Cornell University in botany and plant ecology (1975), and the second from the University of Texas at Dallas in arts and humanities (1997). She was Chair of the Environmental Sciences department at Baylor from 2001 to 2011 and initiated and directed the all-campus undergraduate research program URSA from 2010 to 2018. Although Prof. Bratton has retired from regular teaching and she no longer accepts graduate research students, she remains research active. Her current projects include editing a handbook on religion and the environment and completing a book manuscript on Christianity and Appalachian wilderness. She is accepting selected invitations for speaking engagements, reviewing, and contributing chapters or articles
Current major research project:
Lead editor, Handbook of Religion and the Environment, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, Mass, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing. Submission expected Feb. 2025. Under contract.
Recent Highlights:
Selected Publications
Bratton, S.P. 2016. CHURCHScape: Megachurches and the Iconography of the Environment (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press). 440 pp.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2013 (awarded Jan. 2014) for Bratton, S.P. 2012, The Spirit of the Appalachian Trail: Community, Environment, and Belief on a Long Distance Hiking Path (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press), 284 pp.
Bratton, S.P., in press for 2023, The Christian Ethics of Wastes and Emerging Pollutants in Marine Ecosystems: Addressing Lethal Agency and Collateral Impacts, in Stephen Bouma-Prediger and Nathan Carson, editors, Virtue, Vice, and Ecoflourishing: Transdisciplinary Christian Perspectives, Routledge Series: New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies. (Abingdon, UK: Routledge).
Bratton, S.P. 2023. Laboratory Exercises in Environmental Analysis, 3nd Edition. (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt), 145 pp. (laboratory manual).
Bratton, S.P. 2020 Is intrinsic value worth enough? Shared blessings, the Beatitudes and biodiversity conservation, pp.83-114, in Fifty Years after Earth Day, Charles Tandy, editor, Series Death and Anti-death, vol. 18. (Nashville, TN: Ingram Publishers, RIA University Press).
Bratton, SP, 2018, Ecodimensionality as a religious foundation for sustainability (invited) Sustainability 2018, 10, 10-21; doi:10.3390/su10041021.
Peters, Colleen, Erik Hendrickson, Julia Halbur, Kathryn Schreiner, Elizabeth Minor, and S.P. Bratton, 2018, Pyr-GC/MS characterization of microplastics from the stomach contents of Texas Gulf of Mexico coastal fish, Marine Pollution Bull. 137:91-95.
Peters, Colleen A., Peyton Thomas, Kaitlyn Rieper, and Susan P. Bratton, 2017, Foraging preferences influence microplastic ingestion by six marine fish species from the Texas Gulf Coast, Marine Pollution Bulletin. July, 2017 doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.06.080
Awards and recognitions
Inaugural recipient, Elizabeth Vardaman Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduates, College of Arts and Sciences, Baylor University, May 2019.
Fellow, Virginia Humanities, Charlottesville, VA, August 2018-May 2019.
Elected one of the 100 Most Influential People in the History of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, recognition ceremony in Cherokee, NC, Sept 2016.
Elected Fellow of the International Society for Science & Religion, 2015.
Past achievements:
Overall publication record
Six books in 8 editions, 1 edited proceeding, 2 laboratory manuals in 4 editions, 48 full-length and 10 short book chapters, over 100 additional refereed articles and reports, and over 100 short articles, book reviews, and technical reports. Most recent book, 2021. Most recent contract, in progress.
Selected positions held
Professor Emerit of Environmental Studies, Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX, May 2023-present
Professor of Environmental Studies, Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 2003-May 2023, Chair of Environmental Science/Studies, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 2001-2011, Graduate Faculty, Arts and Sciences, 2001-2023, Director of URSA, Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (all campus), 2010-2018, Fellow of The Institute for Studies of Religion, 2005-present, Fellow of The Institute for Studies of Religion, 2005-present, faculty for the Environmental Humanities minor 2020-2023, Fellow of The Institute for Ecological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences (TIE3S), 2008-2020, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, 2001-2003
Lindaman Chair of Science, Technology, and Society, Whitworth University, Spokane, WA 1995-2001
Professor of Biology, Messiah College, Grantham, PA, 1991-1992
Professor, (Environmental Ethics), AuSable Institute of Environmental Studies, Mancelona, Michigan, 1985-2003
Cooperative Leader and Associate Professor, US National Park Service Cooperative, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 1981-1991, Graduate Faculty, School of Forestry, Graduate Faculty, School of Environmental Design, Faculty of Environmental Ethics
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Ecology Faculty, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 1979-1982
Coordinator and Research Scientist Uplands Field Research Laboratory, 1974-1981, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN
Degrees and certifications
Ph.D., Arts and Humanities, The University of Texas at Dallas, 1997, advisor Z. Ozsvath
Ph.D., Botany (Plant ecology), Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1975, advisor R.H. Whittaker
M.A., Theology, Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, CA, 1987
Graduate Certificate, Social Justice, Harvard University, Extension School, 2021
Graduate Certificate, Environmental Ethics, University of Georgia, Athens, 1985
A.B. cum laude, Biology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, 1970
