Carolyn Merchant, the author of numerous books and articles on the history of science, environmental history and women and the environment, will give a lecture entitled, “Partnership with Nature,” April 17 at 7 p.m. at DePaul University in the Schmitt Academic Center, 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., Room 154.

Merchant is considered a pioneer in the development of environmental history, a field that has emerged over the past 20 years. Concerned with human interactions with the natural environment, this discipline draws on social, political, economic and intellectual history, the history of science and the roots of environmental values.

A professor of environmental history, philosophy and ethics at the University of California, Berkeley, Merchant has proposed a new kind of environmental “ethic-a partnership” ethic for the 21st century. “If both people and science are acknowledged to have rights, we have the possibility of a mutually beneficial situation,” said Merchant.

She is the author of “The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution (1980),” “Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender and Science in New England (1989),” “Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World (1992)” and “Earthcare: Women and the Environment (1996).”

The public lecture is sponsored by DePaul’s Students Environmental Concerns Organization, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Environmental Science program.