Tony VanWinkle, Ph.D.

My Story

A former student once asked me, “What is your relationship to your ancestors?” I’ve thought about the implications and profundity of this question ever since. Not only does the question have serious implications for me as a person of settler descent, but it also informs my commitment to agroecological and biocultural models of sustenance, food production, and socioecological stewardship. As one species among many, our subsistence strategies constitute the imprint of our collective (though highly differentiated) eco-cultural legacy on the planet. In asking ourselves what a just, sustainable, ecologically integrated agriculture might look like, we would do well to consult land-based ancestral wisdom, just as we seek to be remembered as good ancestors ourselves. Warren Wilson provides place and space for these kinds of ethical and existential considerations, while simultaneously nurturing a sense of accountability in our everyday relations with one another and the beings with whom we share existence.