This course attempts to make students more self-conscious about their own views of the environments they inhabit. We study first how a variety of people in the past have defined their connections to the natural landscape and then consider some current perspectives in light of what we have learned. Using critical and analytic tools from the social sciences and literature, we ask about the myths, assumptions, and attitudes which inform the various perceptions we encounter. We read literary, historical, anthropological, sociological, and ecological texts as a basis for our discussions and also look at films, photographs and paintings.
Students write several short essays and produce a long final paper.