Gregg Crane, a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature within the U-M College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, has been named the new director of the Program in the Environment.

Crane has been teaching ENVIRON 377, History and Literature of the Rockies, at Camp Davis since 2007.  He is a specialist in American literary and intellectual history, and his current research focuses on the importance of intuition to a collection of literary, philosophical, legal, and environmental writers. His appointments runs through June 30, 2016.

The Program in the Environment (PitE) is a university-wide collaborative effort overseen by LSA and the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The collaborative program marked its 10thg anniversary last year. Crane replaces Paul Webb, an SNRE professor in its Conservation Ecology field of study.

The PitE curriculum is interdisciplinary, requiring students to take courses in the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. Students supplement the core requirements with specialization and capstone courses, drawing their content from a variety of academic perspectives. Through PitE, students are exposed to a broad understanding of the complexity of environmental problems while taught specific social and natural science skills with which to solve them.

In a previous life, Crane practiced law in San Francisco and Seattle.  His litigation experience included work on several major environmental cases in California and the State of Washington.

Nestled in the mountains just south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and tucked between the Hoback River and Bridger Teton National Forest, the U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences' Rocky Mountain Field Station has provided an unparalleled learning experience each summer, since 1929. Camp Davis hosts courses in Introductory Geology, Geological Mapping, Ecosystem Science, and the History and Literature of the West. It is located within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and nearby the Grand Teton National Park.