caption years_active children birth_place birth_date spouse article_title birth_name occupation
b. ashton nichols 1984 -- present 4 washington , d.c. , u.s. 7 june 1953 kimberley a. nichols 1975 ashton nichols
 brooks ashton nichols author , professor , naturalist
ashton nichols

ashton nichols is the current walter e. beach ’56 distinguished chair in sustainable studies and professor of english language and literature at dickinson college .
his interests are in literature , contemporary ecocriticism , romanticism , and nature writing .
nichols teaches courses in romanticism , 19th century literature , literature and the environment , and nature writing .
he is especially well-known for his study of james joyce 's literary concept of `` epiphany '' and his coinage of the phrase `` urbanatural roosting , '' an idea which links urban with natural modes of existence and argues for ways of living more lightly on the earth , for inhabiting our planet the way birds do , by altering our environments without harming those same environments .
