Dr. Danqiong Joy Zhu is a Field Environmental Philosopher, who commits to situating where she lives and conveying the ethical-and-ecological message of co-inhabitation from local places to the globe. Currently, she is the associate director of international engagement of the Center for Environmental Philosophy. She also serves as an associate scholar of the Cape Horn International Center, Chile. Before she came to Denton to study environmental philosophy and biocultural conservation in 2017, she had served as an associate professor and director of the Center for Cross-cultural Studies at Xidian University.
Joy is based currently in Denton, Texas. She obtained her PhD degree from the Department of Philosophy & Religion at University of North Texas in December 2022. Her dissertation Title is “Meeting Mosses: Toward A Convivial Biocultural Conservation,” supervised by Ricardo Rozzi, Terra Rowe, and Adam Briggle. This doctoral project at UNT is an interdisciplinary study, a study of interspecies kinship and its significance to biocultural conservation. Much of the research on this topic suggests a vertebrate and flagship species centered approach. But Joy discovers the significance of a vegetal orientation, or more particularly a non-vascular species centered approach. To complete this research she had travelled to the sub-Antarctic area doing field and lab work to investigate the endemic biocultural diversity.
Joy is currently leading a book project, “Linking Arts with Biocultural Conservation, Restoration, and Communication,” which can be found here.
Danqiong Zhu 