Country Bookshelf Presents Author Talk with Dr. Gary E. Machlis

Country Bookshelf is proud to present Dr. Gary E. Machlis in celebration of Sustainability for the Forgotten.

The event at a glance:

On September 22nd, please arrive early to secure your seat. Seating is general admission first come, first serve.

At 4:00pm the event program featuring Dr. Gary E. Machlis will begin. The speaker will take audience questions following their program.

After the talk, Gary Machlis will be available for book signing.

Can't attend in person? Order a signed copy of Sustainability for the Forgotten on our website or by calling 406-587-0166. Signing requests will need to be placed 24 hours before the event.

About Sustainability for the Forgotten:

Opening with the extraordinary story of a young French priest working in 1968 amongst impoverished villages of northeast Brazil, struggling to bring sustenance, sustainability, and hope to these disregarded and willfully ignored communities, this book asks a broad and far-reaching question that challenges the contemporary sustainability movement: What about sustainability for the forgotten?

Sustainability for the Forgotten is an incendiary book that confronts the history, policies, and practices of sustainability. It interrogates the usefulness of current sustainability approaches for the poorest of the poor, the chronic underclass, victims of natural disasters, refugees, the oppressed, and asks, how can we do better? With examples that range from the coffeelands of El Salvador to the coal country of American Appalachia, from the streets of Detroit to refugee camps in Greece and the upscale metro centers of the affluent, sustainability is examined with a critical eye and with an emphasis on insuring that the forgotten are heard.

At once well-researched and passionate, wide-ranging and sharply focused, Sustainability for the Forgotten is unlike any other book on the sustainability movement. Written with a distinctive voice that is reasoned, unflinching, and often poetic, the book challenges the sustainability movement to follow "a just and necessary path." The result is a provocative statement on the future of sustainability and a call to action that is ultimately hopeful.

Dr. Gary E. Machlis is University Professor of Environmental Sustainability at Clemson University. Prior to joining the faculty at Clemson, he served as Science Advisor to the Director, U.S. National Park Service (NPS) during both terms of the Obama administration. Machlis teaches and writes about issues in social ecology, conservation and sustainability, science integrity, and the politics of science.

Machlis received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Washington, and his Ph.D. in human ecology from Yale University. He has published scientific articles in journals as varied as Society and Natural Resources, Biological Conservation, Climatic Change, BioScience, Conservation Biology, Science, and Science Advances. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Sustainability for the Forgotten, published by the University of Utah Press in 2024. He is also the Poetry Editor for the conservation journal Parks Stewardship Forum.

Machlis has conducted research in over 75 US National Parks and served as Visiting Chief Social Scientist of the US National Park Service from 1995-2002. He has been active in international conservation and has worked in China on the Giant Panda Project for the World Wildlife Fund, the Galápagos Islands, and the national parks of Kenya, Cuba, and Eastern Europe.

At the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, he serves on the Sustainability Science and Technology Roundtable, and in 2022 was appointed to the National Academies Board on Environmental Change and Society. He also serves on the Academies' Advisory Board for its Scientists and Engineers in Exile or Displaced Program, working to assist and support scientists in exile around the world. In 2010, Machlis was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He lives in Central, South Carolina.

In addition to his talk at Country Bookshelf, Dr. Machlis will be speaking at Museum of the Rockies Hager Auditorium on Monday, September 23 at 7:00 PM.

Accessibility Information:

The event will take place on the first floor of Country Bookshelf.

All doorways have a width greater than 32 inches with the narrowest being our front door at 35 inches.

The speakers will be using a microphone at this event. Additionally, there will be seating reserved for folks who are hard of hearing in the front row.

Please email staff@countrybookshelf.com if you have any specific accessibility needs and we will do our best to serve you!

Do you or someone you know provide ASL interpretation? Country Bookshelf is seeking an interpreter to call on for future events. Please send information to staff@countrybookshelf.com if there is interest!