Know Your Professors: Dr. James Dow

Dr. James Dow is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department this year, and he and wife, Melissa Cowper-Smith, M.F.A., who is teaching freehand drawing in the Art Department, have brought a philosophy of sustainability to campus.

Dow received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York Graduate Center. His wife has an M.F.A. in Painting from Hunter College in New York City.

Dow hopes to live off the grid at some point in the future. Both he and his wife wish to be fully self-sustainable and autonomous in their food consumption. It is something about which both of them are extremely passionate.

Dow says that he must acquire more skills and know-how when it comes to homesteading before he and his wife can go out and fulfill their goal of self-sustainability. He believes that basic survival skills, knowledge, and a desire for living by permaculture principles have been lost by recent generations.

In addition, industrialization and contemporary food production make it difficult to find or be certain of sustainable animals and plants.

"Both Melissa and I believe that the negatives of industrial agriculture far outweigh the positives. Industrialization and monopolization has made it near impossible to find heirloom seeds and heritage animals.," Dow said. "Agriculture companies like Monsanto have made farmers dependent on them to acquire seeds."

Dow added, "Melissa has been involved with the Hudson Valley Seed Library, that attempts to remedy this situation. We both hope to get involved in similar initiatives in Arkansas."

Dow and Cowper-Smith have already begun to experiment in sustainability.

"I started a project last year and I raised twenty-six Rhode Island Red hens from day-old chicks," Dow said, referring to a heritage breed of chicken. "All twenty-six were raised from chicks all the way to full grown laying hens. We ended up having far too many eggs, about two and a half dozen every day, so I started selling the laying hens and now I'm down to eight chickens that lay seven to nine eggs per day."

Dow said he considers the project a success.

"I was able to sell the laying hens to families and young people interested in caring for chickens and enabling the production of their own eggs," Dow said. "I also made my colleagues happy by delivering eggs to campus, which I have done at Hendrix too."

Dow added that he built the coop for his hens from almost all recycled, reused, or salvaged materials.

"I used mostly shipping pallets, an old shed, a fishing dock and other materials laying around the ranch where we were living," Dow said.

When asked about future plans to begin living off the grid and integrating permaculture further into their lives, Dow replied, "We've only been living in Arkansas for four months. We need to make sure to achieve a balance between work and life first, then we can try to focus on our goals of becoming more self-sustaining."

Dow mentioned that he has horses and his fence for those horses is solar-powered.

One thing Dow wants emphasized is that, "The first principle of permaculture is to observe and to be immersed in your environment. So it might seem that there is a hesitancy to get started, but we are still looking at where the sun shines throughout the day, where the water flows, how the wind will affect anything we plant, these sorts of things."

Aside from these considerations, it is important to understand the things one can't control, which is part of what Dow and Cowper-Smith are in the process of doing.

Asked if Hendrix's drive toward "being green" affected his choice in where to teach, Dow replied, "Absolutely. The kinds of goals Hendrix has as being an ecologically minded college matter a lot to me. Odyssey programs about the environment caught my attention and if students are interested, I would love to be a part of Odyssey projects that work toward being more environmentally friendly."

Dow said he doesn't really have any pet peeves that students in his classes should know about.

 "I'm from New York so I've learned to tolerate and be accepting," Dow said. "I think pet peeves come from believing people should behave a certain way or follow along a particular path. I don't have pet peeves."