Nature's Meanings: American Experiences

Today’s ideas about "nature" have emerged from a complex history of diverse experiences, perceptions, and understandings of the bio-physical world, and of contests over that world. In this course we will investigate how American meanings of nature have changed from European-Native contact to the present. These questions will be addressed from multi-disciplinary perspectives in the humanities and will include attention to race, class, gender, and environmental justice. Topics and readings may include: Native American authors, Emerson, Thoreau, Marsh, Muir, Leopold, and Carson, as well as rural, urban, pastoral, and marine ecological contexts. 3 hrs. lect./disc.