About Me

Dustin is currently the Luce Environmental Ethics in Practice (LEEP) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of South Carolina (2025-2027). He received his PhD from the University of South Carolina (2024) and his MA from Western Michigan University (2015). His research in environmental ethics focuses on practical issues, such as how we should understand environmental justice communities in the context of federal and state policy, how to involve ethicists in practical environmental work, the role of justice in remediation of historic wrongdoings, and how we should understand community input and involvement in decision-making regarding environmental issues.

Before holding the LEEP Fellowship, Dustin held the Bridge Humanities Teaching Fellowship (2024-2025) and the Bilinski Dissertation Fellowship (2022-2023) at the University of South Carolina. In addition to his research interests in environmental ethics, Dustin has also published several papers on issues in animal ethics.

Education

PhD, University of South Carolina, 2024
MA, Western Michigan University, 2015

Research Interests

Normative and applied ethics, especially animal and environmental ethics.

Selected Publications

• “Neo-Aristotelian Friendship and Non-Human Animals: Can I be Friends with my Dog?”, Between the Species, volume 28, issue 1, 2025. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/vol28/iss1/5/.
• “What is an Animal Companion? Revisiting the Barnbaum-Varner Definition.”, Journal of Animal Ethics, vol. 14, no. 2, 2024, pp. 144-152. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/944820.
• “Parental Responsibility and Our Special Relationship with Animal Companions”, The Journal of Value Inquiry, vol. 58, no. 1, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-023-09973-2.