Daily Schedule
The Roots
august 26
In class: Introductions
Map: Who owns the West?
Map: National Wilderness Preservation System
august 28
Prepare before class
Read: Wilderness and the American Mind, Prologue
Blog: Write a few lines about the "wildest" place you've been. What makes it wild? What is your definition of "wild"? Include a photograph if you have one.
In class
Discussion | Papers
september 2
Prepare before class
Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind pp 9-48
Barry Lopez, "The Case for Going Unciviled" from Outside Magazine
Gretel Ehrlich, from "The Solace of Open Spaces" handout
Blog: Ehrlich and Lopez are both writing about land and natural environments. Nash, on the other hand, explains how people have viewed natural (ie "wild") environments in history. For example, on page 10, he uses the phrase "the terror of the wild." List some other ways that people have viewed wild environemnts throughout history. Then write a paragraph or two in response to Lopez and Ehrlich. You might compare them. For example, in what ways are Lopez's and Ehrlich's descriptions of the Western landscape full of "terror"? Which writer speaks to you more? Why? Are there any places you take issue with Lopez or Ehrilch?
In class:
Discussion/activity based on your reading and responses
september 4
Prepare before class
Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind pp 84-95
Thoreau, "Walking"
Blog: Take a walk and write a post about "walking" using Thoreau as an inspiration. You might write your post as a response to Thoreau. Consider this: At some point in your post, address the relationship between walking and the Amercian West.
In class:
Discussion/activity based on your reading and responses
september 9
Prepare before class
Wilderness and the American Mind pp 122-140
John Muir, Hetch Hetchy
Aldo Leopold, from The Land Ethic
Edward Abbey, YouTube clip on Southern Utah's Wilderness
Blog: Write a personal piece advocating/arguing for the preservation or restoration of something dear to you. It doesn't have to be a piece of land or something wild--just something that is in danger of disappearing if steps aren't taken to preserve or restore it. It could even be something abstract like a relationship. Although this is a personal piece, use your powers of persuasion, drawing on your research and knowledge.
In class:
Discussion/activity based on your reading and responses
Hetch Hetchy, before and after
Smithsonian Muir
september 11
Prepare before class
Gary Snyder, "The Elwha River"
"Fording the Flooded of the Goldie River" listen online
Blog: free pass--no blogging today but use the time to think about/start drafting your paper.
In class
Film: Damnation
Whose Wilderness?
september 16
Prepare before class
Lewis and Clark journals online (Sept 9 - 22, 1805) READ ALL DATES
Note any questions/observations you have about the journey from your reading of the journals. Notice the descriptions of the landscape, the attention to science, the interactions with the Indians, and pracitcal matters like obtaining food and modes of travel.
Blog: Choose one of the days during Sept 9 - 22. Locate the day on the map - where exactly were the expedition traveling that day? Read all of the entries for that day - Lewis, Clark, Ordway, Gass, and Whitehouse. Do a little research and figure out who Ordway, Gass, and Whitehouse are (see Members of the Expedition for one source). How do the accounts of what happened on that particular day compare? In the video interview with Professor Gary Moulton, he says that Lewis is a more literary writer and Clark a more direct, mater-of-fact writer. Do you agree? What are the advantages and disadvantages to the different styles not just of Lewis and Clark, but of the other jouranlists? How did their conceptions of the land shape how we see the land today?
In class:
Elizabeth Wilson, Nez Perce Tribal Elder, Oral history
Vernon Carroll, Blackfoot Tribe, Oral History
Discussion/activity based on your reading and responses
september 18
Prepare before class
View film: Nimiipuii, Surviving Lewis and Clark
Blog: This is meant to be a creative response. Write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the tribes encountering the expedition. You can use one of the entries from the journals for your source text, but also feel free to invent.
In class:
Visit to Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, early western travel literature collection
Guest, Trevor Bond, WSU MASC
september 23
Prepare before class
White, "Black Women in the Wilderness"
Buffalo Soldiers - do some online research about the Buffalo Soldiers. Write up a paragraph about what you found and bring your findings to class.
"Hiking While Black: The untold story"
Blog: Shelton Johnson says in the film "The Way Home": African Americans "descend from people who had that connection, that visceral, emotional, physical, spiritual connection to the earth. What is hardly ever brought up is how over time, over 500 years, that incredible, intimate connection to nature, to wilderness, was incrementally whittled away and broken down to the point where African Americans are now the one group least likely to have a wilderness experience, least likely to have an experience with the natural world." Respond to this observation using the readings for today along with other readings from this course. (Some questions you might consider are: Is "Wilderness" exclusive? Is it inclusive? Does its definition necessarily make it exclusive? In what ways is this a positive thing? In what ways is it not?)
In class:
Discussion/activity based on reading and blog posts.
Film, Telluride Film Festival, "The Way Home"
Guest, Dr. James Lewis, Forest History Society
september 25
Prepare before class
Lady Isabella Bird pp. 1-50 (or more, if you can)
Houston, "On (Not) Climbing the Grand Tetons"
Porillo, "A Cripple in the Wilderness" (Marianne Moore's "The Octypus")
Levy, "Blind Ambition"
Blog: Does experiencing the Wilderness of the American West assume that you have to be "able" bodied? Or even a more-than-able bodied? What does it mean to able bodied? How does the experience of Wilderness change when you are disabled? What kinds of phsycial, mental challenges do you face? What kinds of complex cultural codes do you have to negotiate? Use the readings by Bird, Houston, Porillo, and Levy in your response.
In class:
Guest, Dr. Nicole Tonkovich, UC San Diego
Discussion/activity based on reading and blog posts. Discussion of paper.
ROUGH DRAFT DUE: September 27 by midnight. Length: At least 7 pages. Rough draft must be longer than the final paper, which will be an exercise in compression. I will put all papers online for you to read and will have them available outside my office door. Bring copies of your peers' papers to class. SUBMIT HERE.
Extra Resources:
Bruneau Canyon Overlook, accessibility
Personal-Research Essays: PICK UP IN FRONT OF MY OFFICE, AVERY 461, On SUNDAY, SEPT 28, AFTER 12:00 noon.
september 30
Prepare before class
Read papers by Samm, Akina, Zach, Mackenzie BEFORE class. Write a one-paragraph response on the final page answering these questions: What is this paper about? Why is it important? Bring papers to class for discussion.
In class:
In-class writer's workshops.
october 2
Prepare before class
Read papers by Seth, Mylexia, Kelby, Katie BEFORE class. Write a one-paragraph response on the final page answering these questions: What is this paper about? Why is it important? Bring papers to class for discussion.
In class:
In-class writer's workshops.
october 7
Prepare before class
Read papers by Alex, David, Charissa, May, Christian BEFORE class. Write a one-paragraph response on the final page answering these questions: What is this paper about? Why is it important? Bring papers to class for discussion.
In class:
In-class writer's workshops.
Wild Forces: Fire and Poetry
october 9
No Class
FINAL PAPER DUE: October 12 @ Midnight. SUBMIT HERE.
october 14
Prepare before class
Kevin Goodan, Upper Level Disturbances
Blog: Read Goodan's book. Pick two poems that "spoke" to you or that you connected with. In a paragraph, explain why. In a separate paragraph, write THREE questions for Goodan. These questions could be about the writing of the poems, about the content, about the formal choices he made, about the stories or experiences "behind" the poems, among other things. Bring the questions to class and be ready to use them for the discussion. (He will also give us a poetry assignment!)
In class:
Visit from Kevin Goodan, poet
october 16
No Class. CHOOSE PARTNERS and topic for presentation. Make and appointment to meet with me about your class presentation with your partner
Blog: Based on Kevin Goodan's prompt with the photos by Adam Ottabi, write a post, whether it be poetry, or prose, or a combination of both, based on the prompt.october 20 MONDAY
Attend Brenda Hillman reading on October 20 @ 5:00 pm in the Museum of ArTS
october 21
Prepare before class
Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
Charles Olson, Projective Verse (I passed out the first three pages in class. Access the whole article here.)
Brenda Hillman, poems from Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire
Gary Snyder, a poem or two (to be distributed in class)
Blog: Choose two passages from Snyder's Practice of the Wild that pique your interest. Write a response to one or both of these passages. Finally, how does Charles Olson's theory of "Projective Verse" coincide with Snyder's ideas in Practice of the Wild? Can you articulate any overlaps between the two manifestos?
In class:
Visit from Dennis DeHart, WSU Fine Arts phhotographer
Discussion based on reading and responses.
october 23
Guest LECTURE: Peter Chilson
october 28
CLass Cancelled
No Blogoctober 30
Class Cancelled
No Blog.november 4
Continue discussion from November 21.
Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild
Charles Olson, Projective Verse (I passed out the first three pages in class. Access the whole article here.)
Brenda Hillman, poems from Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire
No Blog.
november 6
KNOW YOUR BIOREGION
Prepare before class
Bring paper to class for workshop on "compressed prose."
Blog: Know your bioregion! Gary Snyder calls us to know the plants and animal and landforms our bioregion. In The Practice of the Wild, he writes, "Bioregional awareness teaches us in specific ways" and yet "many contemporary Americans don't even know that they don't 'know plants,' which is indeed a measure of alienation." Your assignment for this blog is to get to know a plant in the bioregion where you live right now--the Palouse. Can you find a living example of it? What is its name? What is its history? What is its purpose in the ecosystem? What are your reflections about it? Bring this information to class and be ready to share.
In class:
In class workshop on compressed prose.
november 11
Vetran's Day, No Class
november 13
Alaska and INTO the Wild
PRESENTATION BY Zach and Mackenzie
Prepare before class
Read John Krakauer, Into the Wild
No Blog.
In class:
Presentation by Zach and Mackenzie
november 18
INTO THE WILD: THE ENDURING MYTH
PRESENTATIONS BY David, Christian, and Mylexia
Prepare before class
Read John Krakauer, Into the Wild
Read "How Chris McCandless Died" The New Yorker
Read McCandless Pilgrims
Read Chasing Alexander Supertramp by Eva Holland
No Blog.
In class:
Presentation by David, Christian, and Mylexia
november 20
ART AND ARTEFACTS: Refuge, The Stone Horse, Spiral Jetty
PRESENTATIONS BY Charissa, Samm, and MayElla
Prepare before class
Read Terry Tempest Williams, from Refuge
Read Barry Lopez, The Stone Horse
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty and Earthworks
No Blog.
In class:
Presentation by Charissa, Samm, and MayElla
november 25 & 27
no class thanksgiving break
december 2
VISIT FROM LOCAL WILDERNESS WRITER
Prepare before class
Mary Clareman Blew readings from Bone Deep in Landscape
Bring two questions to class for Mary about her writing and/or about the West
In class:
Visit from Mary Clareman Blew
december 4
The Old Ways: Wilderness Pathways and the Highway 12 Controversy
PRESENTATION BY Kelby and Alex
Prepare before class
Read Robert Macfarlane, from The Old Ways
Read Evan Kelley, The Passing of the Lolo Trail
Read Paul Sutter, from Driven Wild
Readings on the Highway 12 Controversy and The Heart of the Monster, Rick Bass and David James Duncan
No Blog.
In class:
Presentation by Kelby and Alex based on readings
december 9
the WEST IN THE Anthropocene
PRESENTATION BY Akina and Katie
Prepare before class
Read Bill McKibben, from The End of Nature
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge offers free wildlife drive
Recall of the Wild: The quest to engineer a world before humans, by Elizabeth Kolbert
No Blog.
In class:
Presentation by Katie and Akina based on readings
december 11
PRESENTATION BY Seth and Debbie
Prepare before class
Read Fool's Crow (the novel)
No Blog.
In class:
Presentation by Seth and Debbie and Wrap Up
Rewrite of paper due via Submittable by December 17
Photo essay due via Submittable by December 17
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