About

Pamela Herron’s primary research interests include China and Chinese culture and literature; Confucianism and Daoism; Chinese immigration; environmentalism and sustainability; and ecocriticism. She served three years on the MLA Committee for Contingent Labor in the Profession (2014-2017) and promoted more equitable treatment for non-tenured faculty on her own campus. She has developed and taught courses on “Chinese Culture and Humanities”, “Revolutionary Women of China” (Chinese literature by women of the 20th century), “Young Adult Literature” (with a focus on a multicultural approach, social justice, and sustainability), “Confucianism and Daoism”, and “Daoism and the Environment” which pioneered teaching environmental/nature literature at the University of Texas at El Paso. In recent years she has been exploring the Daodejing, along with other ancient Chinese texts, through a sustainable and ecocritical lens. “Daoism and the Environment” was developed with the Daodejing as a foundation text compared with selections of more contemporary environmental and nature writing. Currently she is working on adapting this “Daoism and the Environment” course to an online teaching format, along with her “Confucianism and Daoism” course.

Her first book of nature poetry En L’Air was published in 2013 by Unsolicited Press. She is currently working on two collections of nature poetry, one which features the landscape natural environment of New Mexico, and the second which consists of poems written while traveling and living in China. She frequently presents and lectures on Chinese culture in both China and the United States.

Her poetry, flash fiction, and non-fiction have been published in various anthologies and collections. Other recent publications include the chapter “Becoming Confucian in America” in Confucianism Reconsidered: Insights for American and Chinese Education in the Twenty-First Century forthcoming from SUNY Press in 2018.

She participated in an ecocriticism conference combining Chinese and North American scholars held by the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment hosted by the University of Central Florida. Herron was honored to be selected for the first Nishan Confucian Studies Summer Institute held at the birthplace of Confucius in Shandong PRC. At home, she is an avid organic gardener and recently acquired a small flock of hens.