NEWS

Betty Jean Craige

Albert Christ-Janer Award 2003

Betty Jean Craige, university professor of comparative literature and director of the Center for Humanities and Arts, studies Western society’s shift in conceptual order from a dualistic to a holistic understanding of nature and culture. Her six books include a biography of the late ecologist Eugene Odum, a book on American patriotism and a volume on literary study. In Laying the Ladder Down, which won a Georgia Author of the Year Award in Non-Fiction, Craige argues that Western culture’s shift toward cultural holism is evident from such social forces as feminism and the peace and environmental movements. Craige co-directs the Delta Prize for Global Understanding, which has been awarded to such luminaries as Jimmy and Roslyn Carter and Desmond Tutu.