Dr. Ashton Nichols is Professor of English Language and Literature and Walter E. Beach '56 Distinguished Chair in Sustainability Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the University of Virginia, where he was both a DuPont Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Professor Nichols spent three years as an award-winning journalist before returning to the university for his M.A. and Ph.D. in English. The recipient of teaching awards that include both the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, Professor Nichols's books include The Revolutionary I: Wordsworth and the Politics of Self-Presentation, as well as a teaching anthology, Romantic Natural Histories: William Wordsworth, Charles Darwin, and Others. His scholarly publications cover a range of topics that include Chinua Achebe, Derek Walcott, Thomas Pynchon, Seamus Heaney, African exploration narratives, Victorian poetry, and travel writing; he has published his own fiction and poetry. Professor Nichols is also the producer of A Romantic Natural History: 1750-1859, a hypertext project that has been recognized for excellence by both The New York Times and the BBC in London. In recent years he has delivered keynote addresses and lectures in nations around the world, including China, England, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Cameroon, and Morocco.