Environmental Studies 202-A: ST: Some Trees

Trees, like people, can be so ubiquitous that we overlook them. What do we miss? What habits of mind must we cultivate to see every tree? Every person? And when we do, how can we write into the connections we've made with our "roving eye?" In this course you will write prose and poetry that emerges out of field observations, classroom discussion, and close readings of texts that explore ecology and the imagination, plants and consciousness, poetry and justice, gender and ash trees. You will also participate in workshops designed to help you become more aware of the choices you make as a writer. Meanwhile, you will "adopt" a single tree on Whitman's campus and research how humans across time and culture have used and celebrated that species of tree, culminating in a presentation. This is not a course limited to the study of trees in literature and on campus; it's also about history, questions of labor (humans planted these trees and tend to them), and how seemingly unrelated phenomena can shape our relationships to land, sky, water and people. Applies toward the Creative Production requirement for the Environmental Humanities major. Counts for Humanities credit for all Environmental Studies Majors. Prerequisite: Environmental Studies 120 or consent of instructor. Distribution area: Humanities.