Envs
4950 Integrative Seminar in Environmental Studies, Spring 2022
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Calendar
last update: April 10, 2022
Class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:35-1:30pm in
Burleson 303.
Abbreviations:
- Haskell=The
Songs of Trees by David George Haskell
- BSNW = Best American Science and Nature Writing
2021
Week 1
Wednesday, January 19:
Review the custom syllabus assignment, and browse the sample
syllabi from previous Envs students.
Read the following, online:
- "What
is Environmental Studies?" Michael E. Soule and Daniel Press. BioScience 48,
5 (May 1998): 397-405. (Click
here for a cached version.)
-
"Environmental Sciences vs. Studies." The University of Wisconsin
Environmental Sciences Major website. No date. envirosci.cals.wisc.edu/environmental-sciences-vs-studies/
Browse "Environmental Studies" Wikipedia
article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_studies
Due: Write
a short memo (300-600 words) to me and to your classmate, explaining your
interest in environmental studies. Where do you see yourself fitting into the
field, as it is described in the readings, above? What classes have you taken?
What particular area of environmental studies interests you? Why are
you interested in that area? What's your personal connection to it? Include a
draft of a working title for your customized syllabus for this course. Also
include any comments you have on the service placement you would prefer. Be
prepared to present to the class.
Week 2
Monday, January 24
Read "Don’t Look Up Doesn’t Get the Climate
Crisis." By Eric Levitz. New York Magazine, January 5, 2022. nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/01/dont-look-up-climate-metaphor-review.html.
Wednesday, January 26
In BSNW, read "What the Coronavirus Means for Climate
Change" p247-255. It's also online
here: "What the Coronavirus Means
for Climate Change." By Meehan Crist. The New York Times, March 27, 2020. www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-climate-change.html
Week 3
Monday, Jan 31
In BSNW, read "River of Time" p255-263, and
"Fish Out of Water" p264-275.
Wednesday, Feb 2
In BSNW, read "Cancel Earthworms" p275-288.
Due:
Browse David Haskell's bibliography. Select an interesting article, in a field
that you have studied. Look at the main author of the article. Use the internet
to find out what that person's job is. What is that person's job like? Would
you, yourself, want that job? What is the highest degree that person has
earned? Also say a word about the organization that employs them: Is it private
industry, nonprofit, government? Where does the money come from, for this
person's salary? In a memo to me and your classmates, write up a few
paragraphs about what you learned.
Week 4
Monday, February 7
In BSNW, read "Long May They Reign" p288-312.
Wednesday, February 9
Read Wallace-Wells, in "Part II: Elements of
Chaos," Climate Conflict p124; Systems p131.
Due:
Write a memo to me and your classmates, in which you describe your service
placement: What is the name and the nature of the organization you're working
for? Whom are you working with? Describe the nature of the work you're doing.
Say something about the nature of the organization: Government, private
non-profit, for-profit? What is the mission. Where does the money come
from?
Week 5
Monday, February 14
Due:
Write up your customized syllabus, describing what you're doing in this class,
this semester. See guidelines
and examples, here.
Bring a printout to class today.
Also, email me an electronic version.
Wednesday, February 16
In BSNW, read the Introduction by editor, Ed Yong, and read
"This Overlooked Variable is the Key to the Pandemic" p3-15.
Week 6
Monday, February 21
Read "David Haskell Speaks for the Trees," an
award-winning profile article by Paul Kvinta, published in Outside
Magazine on March 23, 2017. www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/david-haskell-speaks-trees/
Wednesday, February 23
Read the first chapter of David Haskell's The Songs of
Trees.
Week 7
Monday, February 28
Begin reading the first book that you've selected, related
to your service placement.
Due:
Select a key passage from the book you're reading. In a memo to me and your classmates,
write a response that incorporates that passage. Also in your response,
introduce the book and the passage, and explain why the passage is significant.
Also include a full, formal citation of the passage and the book. Be prepared
to present in class.
Wednesday, March 2
Continue reading the first book that you've selected,
related to your service placement. Be prepared to discuss in class.
Week 8
Monday, March 7
In-class review for midterm
exam.
Wednesday, March 9: Midterm
exam.
SPRING BREAK: Monday, March 14 to Friday
March 19.
Week 9
Monday, March 21
Read Haskell, chapter 2,
"Balsam Fir."
Wednesday, March 23
Read Haskell, chapter 3,
"Sabal Palm."
Week 10
Monday, March 28
Read Haskell, chapter 7,
"Cottonwood."
Wednesday, March 30
Read Haskell, chapter 8,
"Callery Pear."
Week 11
Monday, April 4
Read Haskell, chapter 9,
"Olive."
Also, browse the following
student final projects from previous semesters:
* "Recreation
and Nature Education at a City-Owned Nature Preserve: Service Placement
Experiences at Bays Mountain Park, Spring 2019" by Sarah Mawhinney,
April 2019
* "The
Conservational and Economical Benefits of Modern Day Wildlife Manipulation: My
Time at the Erwin National Fish Hatchery" by Helena Hunt, May 2018
* "Public
Land Management and Cherokee Forest Voices, a Non-Profit Forest Watch
Coalition: One Student’s Experience" by K.S., April 2014
Wednesday, April 6
- Rough draft of written
project due. Bring two extra copies (a total of 3 copies) for a draft
workshop.
Week 12
Monday, April 11
Read selections from BSNW, to be announced.
Wednesday, April 13: Class
cancelled.
Week 13
Monday, April 18
In BSNW, read "Periwinkle, the Color of Poison,
Modernism, and Dusk" p169-174; and "The Unsung Heroine of
Lichenology" p175-181.
On Monday, class will meet at the University Woods Gazebo,
which is at the top of parking lot #13 (see this map of campus).
Directions:
1. Immediately south of the
Sherrod library and Governors Hall is the intersection of J. L. Seehorn, Jr.
Rd. and Southwest Ave.
2. From that intersection, walk
south, beneath the concrete railroad bypass.
3. On the other side of the
bypass is the entrance to lot #13. At the top of that lot, at the edge of
University Woods, is the University Woods Gazebo.
Wednesday, April 20
In BSNW, read "The Difference Between Feeling Safe and
Being Safe" p22-29.
- Second draft of written
final project due.
Week 14
Monday, April 25
In BSNW, read "A Toxic
Secret Lurks Deep in the Sea" p312-327; and "The Last Children of
Down Syndrome" p359-378.
Wednesday, April 27
Final project due. In-class
presentations.
No
class meeting during finals week.