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Eric Landon McDuffie, Ph.D., is a 2025 graduate of the Ph.D. Program in Environmental Studies and Sustainability at Antioch University, New England.

Dissertation Committee:

Jason Rhoades, PhD, Chairperson

Alesia Maltz, PhD, Committee Member

Peggy Whalen-Levitt, PhD, Committee Member

Keywords

Thomas Berry, Max van Manen, Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton, Odell Shepard, spiritual ecology, differentiation, subjectivity, communion, communion of subjects, phenomenology, phenomenological paradigm, hermeneutic phenomenology, lived experience, fly fishing, contemplation, contemplative, mindfulness, regeneration, natural world

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Inspired by the lived fly fishing experiences encountered with my grandfather and the spiritually ecological writings of Thomas Berry, I explored how the sacred art of fly fishing connects participants with the natural world from a universal perspective given to us by Thomas Berry in The New Story. Berry described three principles that make up the entire universe: Differentiation, Subjectivity and Communion. I wanted to understand how lived fly fishing experiences fit into Berry’s three universal principles and how an individual’s lived fly fishing experience(s) cultivate(s) a “Communion of subjects.”1 Answers to these two questions informed five initial approaches to consider when constructing an eco-contemplative fly fishing community practice where children, adolescents, and adults embody a sense of the sacred while they grow, heal and establish bonds of intimacy within nature. Researched within a phenomenological paradigm and hermeneutic phenomenological approach rooted in everyday lived experience, this dissertation explores the lived experiences of seven past and present fly fishers. Uncovered primary essences and supporting attributes describe the depths of their lived fly fishing experiences within the backdrop of Berry’s three universal principles. The words and phrases all expressed by the seven fly fishers, reveal blueprints to create eco-contemplative fly fishing community practices in any 1 Thomas Berry, Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community (Sierra Club, 2006), 149.v bioregion which supports native fisheries thriving in wild waters flowing through wild nature. Eco-contemplative fly fishing community practices offer us one way forward to become part of a “communion of subjects” while we contribute towards a more regenerative society. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd).

Comments

ORCID iD 0009-0005-3385-7128


Bio: Dr. Eric Landon McDuffie is a native of Durham, NC. He recently moved to Beaufort, NC with his wife, Michele. McDuffie earned an undergraduate degree in biology with a secondary science teaching certification in middle grades science and high school earth environmental and biological sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His formal education continued with the completion of a master of environmental management degree at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. There, his master’s degree thesis investigated where and how indigenous knowledge exists within the environmental education centers throughout North Carolina. Now for over 19 years, Eric continues to teach middle and high school sciences. McDuffie was honored with the Governor’s Award as the Environmental Educator of the Year for the state of North Carolina when he created an outdoor classroom for his middle school students and became state certified as an environmental educator. McDuffie earned his second master of environmental studies degree at Antioch University New England while completing his PhD in Environmental Studies with a focus on Spiritual Ecology and Environmental Education. While he continues to teach as both an eighth grade and earth environmental science teacher at Morehead City Middle School, Eric’s greatest passion now leads him to build an eco-contemplative fly fishing community practice for his students and their families. Through this coastal community fly fishing practice participants will learn the sacred art of fly fishing and experience communion bonds of intimacy with those who live in wild waters flowing through wild nature. Eric’s PhD dissertation, The Lived Experience of Fly Fishing and Its Significance for Cultivating a Communion of Subjects, will help him achieve this goal. Through this eco-contemplative fly fishing practice, Eric continually honors his grandfather who first began teaching him the sacred art of fly fishing on his third birthday. That day, he gave Eric a brand new Sears & Roebuck fiberglass fly rod and reel and said, “Let’s go fly fishing!”

Previous Publications

McDuffie, E. (2023). Dialoguing with Earth. Chapter 8 - The Place of Our Belonging: A Work for Children and Educators Mentored by Thomas Berry, edited by Peggy Whalen-Levitt. The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World.

McDuffie, E. (2021). Dialoguing with Earth, Chrysalis 18, Spring Ed. 4-12.

McDuffie, E. (2017). Foundations in Contemplative Ecology. Part I. Chrysalis 14, Spring Ed. 4-19.

McDuffie, E. (2017). Foundations in Contemplative Ecology. Part II. Chrysalis 14, Spring Ed. 20-27.

McDuffie, E. (2016). Eco-Contemplative Fly Fishing Experiences Within a Watery World. The Inner Life of the Child in Nature: Presence and Practice The Center for Education, Imagination, and the Natural World.

McDuffie, E. (2015). A Study of Ecosystem Services Provided by a Storm Water Retrofit System on a Public School Campus in Orange County, North Carolina. Sustainability – The Journal of Record, 8(2).

McDuffie, E. (2014). When Your Children Ask You What You Did to Preserve the Planet for Their Future, What Will You Tell Them? Duke Environmental Leadership Newsletter, Feature Article.

McDuffie, E. (2014). An Evaluation of Societal Implications of Environmental Education through the Integration of Indigenous and Westernized Practices in the Piedmont Region of North Carolina. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/8484.

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