ENG 206 - Environmental Humanities Collaboratory

This writing-intensive environmental humanities course connects questions of social justice to the representation of place in a range of literary genres. Guided by analysis of written works and public-facing humanities projects operating at the intersection of environmental justice and the environmental imagination, students will develop research projects centering shared commitments to “place” by engaging with the cultural histories of our campus, from Quad and canyon to classrooms and commons. What values does our environment encode, and why? What practices sustain life or exhaust it, and what lives must we work to sustain? What relationships matter most in the places we share, and how does the intersection between social and environmental justice invite us to rethink existing relationships and build new ones? How can we deepen our understanding of narrative and generate our own persuasive writing to contribute to positive change in our campus and the communities it fosters? How do our readings frame questions and encourage critical thinking about place, and how can our experiences of place frame questions about our readings and analyses? Team taught by two faculty members in English, in collaboration with cocurricular and community partners, the classes will create a range of learning communities throughout the semester, including weekly discussions of assigned readings in two sections, full-group collaborations and conversations about shared questions, project-based learning in teams formed around student partnerships and the archives they engage, and interactive public talks with invited experts in the field. This course adapts the collaboratory model to support academic analysis, writing, and research through a collective approach; students will ultimately produce scholarly work that uses narrative to convey research findings about their place-based project, informed by a deeper understanding of environmental humanities and the representation of “place.”

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Instructional Method: Conference-laboratory
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

• Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
• Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
• Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).