Culture, Communication, and the Human Relationship with Nature
Comparative History of Ideas 270C – Special Topics
Autumn Quarter 2006 – 5 credits
Mon/Wed, 10:30-12:20 in Anderson 008
(Course can be taken by CHID majors for natural world credit, Class A)
Instructor: Tema Milstein
Office hours:
Mon: 12:30-1:30 @ location to be announced.
Wed: 2:00-3:00 @ Henry Art Gallery Baci Café, located on the western edge of campus at 15th Avenue NE and NE 41st Street.
Contact info:
Course content and objectives:
This course explores the cultural and communicative ways that we inform, shape, and shift our relations with “the environment.” We will look at human-nature relations as both actively socially constructed and as deeply and materially experienced. Together, through readings, examples, discussion, research, and experiential forays, students and teacher will expand our repertoire to understand:
1) how human communication works to construct cultural concepts of nature
2) how communication can be used to deconstruct and critically investigate understandings of nature
3) how different views of perception and consciousness shape the human relationship with nature
4) how varied cultural practices inform the nature-human relationship
The course is organized into four sequential arcs to address the above themes. Taken together, they will lead to a deeper understanding of culture, communication, and the human relationship with nature. The learning focus in this course is on student-driven creative and critical exploration, as well as out-of-the-classroom individual and group field experiences. Some classes will be held outside.
Required texts:
1. CHID 270C Course Reader – Available at Rams Copy Center, 4144 University Way NE.
2. Narby, J. (1998). The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. – Ordered and in stock for CHID 270C at the University Bookstore on the Ave.
** Finish all assigned readings before the week they are assigned. Be prepared to discuss, question, and build on the readings.
Course and Teaching Style: While we will utilize a wide variety of learning approaches in this class – including guided freewriting, interactive lectures, mixed media, field experiences, and independent creative projects – this course is essentially discussion-based and experiential. This sort of learning requires active individual and group participation. Each of you will get out of this class what you put into it. And your experience will be a collective one. If one does not prepare for class, discussion will suffer. And, vice versa, if all prepare for class, all may thrive and gain from the experience.
To have successful experiential learning:
· Prepare yourselves by reading and involving yourselves in the readings.
· Engage in the class and actively participate in discussion, exercises, and outings.
Teaching expectations and style:
· While there are times to be serious in this class, much of it will be fun – we learn better when we are enjoying ourselves.
· I try to maintain and I expect my students to maintain an environment of respect and support. You have a wide variety of experiences that apply to course materials – your backgrounds and your often-resulting divergent viewpoints are vital to the success of this course.
· Feel free to disagree with others but do so in a way that is respectful and that still validates the other’s viewpoint.
· There are many right answers to issues and questions. Assignments in class and outside of class will involve thinking and struggling to figure things out for yourself.
· I am sure you will have questions. Please talk to me and other students. I am always willing to listen to your ideas and help you focus.
· I assume students are self-directed and motivated to learn. Otherwise, how did you get here to this seat in this university? I begin with the assumption that you will be a dedicated participant in this class. Your sincere and supportive participation in class influences your grade.
Course Requirements: 3 Field Experience Reflection Papers, Participation (discussion, reading reflection & questions, guided freewriting, exercises/examples), Final Project Proposal, Final Project
Three Field Experiences/Field Experience Reflection Papers (30% of final grade – each paper is 10%): This course is a 5-credit course that takes up only 4 hours of class time a week. It was designed this way to include time for a unique element – three explorations in the field that correlate to each of the three arcs of the course. These required experiential forays provide you with an opportunity to engage your learning in the course with your own direct observations and reflections. During these field experiences, I will provide a loose framework for engaging in the site – such as through signage, creating art, silence, talking to experts, guidebooks, self reflection, etc. Bring a little notebook on the field experiences to jot down observations and ideas to inform your Field Experience Reflection Papers. If you absolutely cannot make it with the group for a group field experience, you are expected to figure out a way to go to the designated place on your own – after first consulting with me for guidance on framing your experience. One of the three forays will be an individual experience in “wild nature.” Except for the “wild nature” week, when you are instructed to get as far into “wild nature” as you can get, most places we will visit are in Seattle’s environs and accessible by public transit and your U-Pass (metro web site for trip planning: http://transit.metrokc.gov/). We will also collaborate to do carpooling if possible. During Week 2, we will discuss and finalize the locations of the field experiences depending on ideas we have as a class. Places may include:
Arc 1: Construction and Deconstruction of Nature
Group field experience:
- Woodlawn Park’s rabbit warrens
- The Locks and the salmon ladder
- Woodlawn Park Zoo or Seattle Aquarium
Arc 2: Paradigmatic Shifts I: Perception
Individual field experience:
- The wildest nature you can access (informed by Tom Brown and perhaps Andrew Goldsworthy)
Arc 3: Paradigmatic Shifts II: Practice and Experience
Group field experience:
- Pig Peace Sanctuary
- Seattle Tilth P-patch community garden
For each field experience, you will write a Field Experience Reflection Paper. These papers are meant for you to creatively and critically reflect on your field experience as it relates to your own discovery process surrounding the themes in this course. Papers should put your personal reflection (your own emotional, sensory, and/or cognitive observations and interpretations within the field site) in interaction with two or more class readings from the arc of that field experience. Choose two or more class readings from that third of the course that especially help you interpret, reflect upon, and analyze your field experience. I also encourage you to grapple with other class concepts that you find yourself applying to your experience. The observations and ideas you write down in the little notebook you bring on the field experiences will provide you with grounded reflections to explore in your paper. Papers must be typed, five pages, and double spaced.
Grading criteria for the Field Experience Reflection Paper assignments:
1.) Originality – I expect and appreciate creative approaches to these papers; 2.) Depth of Critical Thinking – Use evidence to support your claims, develop your ideas in depth and explain the implications of your ideas; 3) Accuracy of Analysis – Use helpful concepts from readings and from class accurately and do not repeat what authors or others say, but reveal your own ideas and thoughts as you engage with class concepts to analyze your own individual experience; 4) Grammar/Spelling – edit carefully to show you fully respect your work and to be certain your work, in turn, receives the respect and consideration it deserves; 5) Organization of thoughts – your papers should exhibit a clear flow of thought. A thesis statement and a one-sentence preview of the structure of the ideas in the entry will help here, as will a conclusion.
Participation (25% of final grade): Your participation is crucial in this class as our collective learning will be based on active, engaged discussion; reading questions; guided freewriting; and exercises and examples we do in class and you bring to class. Participation will always be noted. Students missing discussions, guided freewriting days, or days when you bring examples or engage in exercises will also miss the chance to earn participation points on these days. As there will be no make-ups, regular attendance of class will be necessary to successfully complete the course. Please keep in mind that you, the student, are responsible for all the information and material presented in class whether or not you attend each class period. I recommend exchanging email addresses with someone in class who you can check in with in case you are forced to miss a class so you do not fall behind.
Discussion (5%): I will evaluate participation in discussions over the quarter based on this understanding of what an excellent level of discussion on your part looks like:
I made thoughtful contributions in both small group discussion and large group discussion. I helped make sure everyone was participating in both small and large group discussion by asking follow-up and clarification questions of others, asking silent students what they thought, and making sure I did not dominate the discussion. I was an active listener, by taking notes on others’ comments, not repeating comments, and building on group discussion.
Reading reflection & questions (10%): Starting with Week 2, each week, by no later than 5 p.m. on Sunday, you will post on the class Epost one short paragraph of reflection for each reading of the following week with one or more thoughtful question for each reading. Each week, the first person to post will start a separate thread for each reading with their paragraphs and questions. Those who post thereafter will reply to each reading’s already established thread as they post their paragraphs and questions. Try to keep each reading’s paragraph and question to a maximum of 100 words (between 50-100 words is perfect). Your paragraph and question/s for each reading are your first opportunity to discuss and build on the readings and will serve to set some of the course of our discussion in class. As critical thinkers, your goal in your reflections and questions are to tease out what you find most interesting in the readings; to begin a conversation with the parts you find thought-provoking or confusing; to creatively relate other ideas or examples from outside class or from other readings to concepts you found intriguing; to critique concepts in the readings you want to challenge. When possible, your reflection paragraphs and questions should also engage with your peers’ postings in an on-line discussion of the readings. You can post more than once in a thread if you want to, but you must post a paragraph and question/s in each thread to engage with each reading for the following week for full credit. It goes without saying that in order to do this required assignment you will need to have completed your readings for the upcoming week.
Use the following URL to access the class Epost: https://catalyst.washington.edu/webtools/epost/register.cgi?owner=tema&id=16416
For instructions on use: http://catalyst.washington.edu/student/EPost.html
Guided Freewriting (5%): I will sometimes guide us in freewriting, a technique intended to clear mental space so thoughts and insights about an issue can emerge. Divergence from the topic usually occurs, and is one of the purposes of the exercise. This exercise will engage you with themes from class in an attempt to forge your own positions on the nature-human relationship. Each guided freewriting will be turned in to me for participation points. I do not grade what is written, so it is not necessary to edit your sentences, grammar, or spelling.
Examples/exercises (5%): Your participation will also be evaluated through assigned examples and exercises that you bring to class and in-class exercises such as mini-field experiences. Assigned examples and exercises will include activities such as creating your ecological footprint or bringing in an example text of constructed nature. Exercises we do in class will often revolve around on-campus exploration during class time. On these days, which will often not be pre-announced, we will go as a class to an on-campus “nature-human interactive place.” During these mini-field experiences, we will interact in various ways with that environment and write reflections. Places we may visit include the UW salmon hatchery, the UW greenhouses, the UW organic community garden, and the UW medicinal herb garden (the largest in the Western hemisphere!). I will collect many of these exercises and examples to go toward participation points.
Final Proposal and Project:
Final Project Proposal (15% of course grade)
Read the next entry on your Course Final Project before reading this section to first get a better idea of what is involved in this project as a whole. I strongly encourage you to discuss your ideas with me for your final project during the first few weeks of class, which will prepare you for this Proposal assignment. Please come to my office hours to do so. Discussing this with me and thinking this through will prepare you and help you get the most out of class on Wednesday, Oct. 11 (Week 3), when you bring in a typed Description Sheet for constructive feedback from other students in class. Your typed description should include: 1) a brief description of the concept or topic you want to grapple with for your final project, 2) a specific research question you have about the concept or topic (you can think of this as your goals of understanding for your final project – what do you want to better understand?), and 3) two ideas of creative approaches you think would reach your goals of understanding for your final project. On Oct. 11, bring 3 copies of this typed description for your peer reviewers. In class, you will take notes on their feedback. After class, you will incorporate the feedback that you found helpful into your final proposal – you will write about how you went about eliciting and incorporating feedback when you hand in your final project. In addition, you can bring this description to my office hours to get my feedback and discuss your ideas. The next step is to meet with me individually for 15 minutes on either Wednesday, October 18, or Monday, October 23 (a sign-up sheet for times will be passed around in class). You will bring two typed questions to discuss with me that will help you in finalizing your proposal: 1) one question about your concept or topic (e.g., this can be about your goals of understanding, your research question, sources, issues about the chosen concept or topic itself, etc.), 2) one question about your creative approach (e.g., this can be about your goals with your creative project approach, your ideas about fruitful and engaging approaches, fine-tuning your creative approach, your presentation, etc.). Your goal with this meeting is to improve and modify your proposal according to the feedback you receive and the ideas you come up with in our discussion. Final project proposals are due at the start of class on Wednesday, Nov. 1.