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I had just turned thirty when a nagging doubt started to surface about the path I was following. I had been working full-time in medical editing and pharmaceutical statistics for ten years, having graduated in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge back in 2003. I was grateful to have found a niche in which I could be employed, but it was always just a job and never a passion for me. What I knew for sure was that this was not how I wanted to spend the next decade of my life. Something had to change.

The plan I hatched was to see if I could find work in the environmental sector – an area more strongly aligned with my interests – and to do this I felt that studying for a Master’s in Forestry would be a sensible course of action. I was delighted to come across the distance learning option offered by ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ and even happier to be accepted onto the course.

To ensure that I had sufficient time to dedicate to my studies, I approached my employer about changing from a full-time contract to a part-time one, and they kindly accommodated my request.

Once I began the Master’s, I found my latent interest in nature and the environment being stoked and new avenues for intellectual exploration opening up. A crucial part of this was that the teaching and support on offer was far more personal and nurturing than I had experienced during my undergraduate days.

There was one part of the course that proved to have a particularly strong pull on me, and that was the link between environmental philosophy and on-the-ground actions, in terms of both the everyday behaviours of humans and broader land-management practices. I found that my assigned reading not only expanded my knowledge but also reshaped my worldview. And I began to see my surroundings through what can be described as an ecocentric lens, in which intrinsic value and moral standing are found in all our fellow Earthlings – elevating non-human life far beyond mere objects for exploitation.

Around the time that I was writing up my dissertation to finish my studies at ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ, I began a series of conversations with some colleagues outside of the university about the possibility of founding a new journal to explore ecocentric thought. We wanted the publication to be free of fees for both readers and contributors, and for it to be volunteer-run. Just over a year later, in July 2017, the resulting journal that I co-founded, The Ecological Citizen, published its first issue.

This leap into volunteer work and independent academic activity was to set the tone for the years that have followed my graduation from ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ. Going part-time in the area of work in which I had settled proved to be the change that I needed, and I continue working as a medical editor to this day.

Having more free time has allowed to explore and expand on various elements of the Forestry degree. In addition to work on The Ecological Citizen, I have authored or co-authored a number of academic and popular articles on environmentalism, and I have written or co-edited several books. Most recently, an anthology of new writing that I steered with Eileen Crist – under the title of Cohabiting Earth: Seeking a Bright Future for All Life – was published by SUNY Press.

Another inspiration from my time at ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ was the importance of spending time outdoors. Happily, another way in which I now make use of my spare time is as a Volunteer Ranger for a national park in the UK.

I will be forever grateful to all the people who made my time at ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ so enjoyable and so beneficial for my post-university life.

Cohabiting Earth (SUNY Press, 2024):

Joe Gray’s website:

The Ecological Citizen:

Writing for the Global Rewilding Alliance: