date last updated: 29 December 2002
Ecospiritual Literature
Type of Course: Online
with beginning and ending residencies at Vermont College
Credits: 3 Graduate, Undergraduate,
or CEU
Course Number: INTS-576-O
Track: Spirit of Place
Faculty: Leslie Van Gelder,
Ph.D. (click for a
brief biography)
Time:
Winter 2002-2003
Residencies: Opening Residency
18-19
January 2003, Closing Residency 19-20 April 2003,
at
Vermont College,
Union Institute and University, Montpelier (click for further information on
this site)
Registration Dates: Registration deadline
9
December 2002
Course Dates:
18 January 2003-20 April 2003
Costs: Graduate or Undergraduate Credit
tuition $1010.00, CEU tuition $910.00.
Learners are also responsible for their travel, room, and board for Residencies,
reading materials, internet and computer expenses
Prerequisites: Undergraduate degree for pursuing Graduate Credits
Course Description:
I think that the spirit which informs the landscape is more important than the rise of civilization. The spirit is really what matters. We certainly have the power to kill ourselves, but we do not, in my opinion, have the power to kill the universe. I find great consolation in that. I like the idea that my star sisters will be there long after I’m gone, and very likely long after any human existence on earth…I think that if I can meld my spirit with the spirit of the mountain, that’s as much of eternity as I can know. It’s enough to satisfy me.
N. Scott Momaday, from Ancestral Voice
Scientific inquiry often begins with a personal sense of wonder found in
the natural world. Naturalist John Muir found everything in nature hitched
to everything else. Henry David Thoreau found his faith in a seed. This
course examines the ways in which people dwell in the world to see how
that affects both our sense of spirituality and our connection with
nature. We look at the emotional landscapes of faith, love, death and home
to see from how those concepts interact with our relationship with the
natural world. Then we look at the ways in which naturalists have found
the language for expressing the connection between their environments and
the landscapes of their souls.
Course Objectives and Outcomes:
Before the course begins, participants will do the required readings and submit a three to five page paper described below to the instructor by email attachment. Throughout the course, participants will work on an individual project for presentation during the last three weeks. The course begins and ends with residency weekends in Vermont where learners will shape their individual research questions and form a trusting community with whom they will share their work.
The online portion of the course will follow a weekly calendar with the following structure:
-
Weekly readings will be posted each Friday for the following week. Total weekly reading will be between 20 and 60 pages and will be available electronically. Participants are expected to read and be prepared to comment.
-
Discussions on the readings will take place from 8 am (East Coast USA time) Tuesday to 5 pm Friday. The discussions will not be simultaneous but all participants are expected to participate weekly and to have posted by 5 pm Wednesday.
-
Cyber-office hours will be held on Thursdays. This is a good opportunity to ask questions about individual research projects. While learners don’t have to ‘stop by’ on Thursdays (questions can be emailed during the week), all of the week’s one-on-one emails will be answered by Thursday night.
-
On Fridays, participants will post a reflection piece on how the reading and weekly discussion has related to their own personal question. Other participants will be encouraged (but not required!) to comment on reflections. Individual comments from the instructor will be sent privately.
During the first 7 weeks of the course, readings will prompt the discussions. During the last three weeks, learners’ projects will become the weekly focus. All projects will be due at the end of the sixth week, and will be posted during the span of the last three weeks of the course. The object of these presentations is to share with the learning community the ideas that learners are shaping through their individual interests in the subject. Projects can take the form of formal papers, creative works, web sites, power points, video clips, or any form of media which can be shown via the internet, but must be of an appropriate level work.
Assessment:
To receive Graduate or Undergraduate Credit for the course, a learner must complete the pre-course readings, attend the beginning and ending residencies, read the weekly readings, participate in the weekly discussions, weekly write a reflection, submit preliminary and post-course reflection papers, and present a final project. There are no letter grades for this course, only satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Graduate Credit requires a higher standard of work than does Undergraduate Credit. The relative weights that the elements of the course contribute to the final assessment are as follows: Preliminary paper 10%, Residencies 20%, Weekly readings, discussions, and reflections 30%, Final project 30%, and Post-course paper 10%.
To receive Continuing Education Units for the course, learners must complete the pre-course and weekly readings, and participate in the weekly discussions. They may also attend the beginning and ending residencies and present a final project, but should not submit papers or reflection pieces to the instructor. There are no CEU letter grades for this course, only satisfactory or unsatisfactory. The relative weights that the elements of the course contribute to the final assessment are as follows: Weekly readings and discussions 100%.
Credit learners may request narrative evaluations for transcripts or learning plans/agreements.
Syllabus (subject to change):
Week 1: The Intersection of Faith and Place
In the first week of our course we will look at an overview of writers and thinkers who have brought together the subject of faith and place to help us to see where that discussion is today. We will identify major themes and approaches and discuss our own heritage and positions on the subject.
Texts: John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Richard Jefferies, Charles Darwin
Week 2: The Spiritual Landscape of Home
Bachelard tells us that all places we live in still contain the essence of our notion of home. Terry Tempest Williams charges that the bravest act people can do is to stay home. What is the role of home in our spiritual landscapes? How is the notion of home founded and what happens in its absence?
Texts: Paul Gruchow, Terry Tempest Williams, Linda Hogan, Scott Russell Sanders, Gaston Bachelard
Week 3: The Erotics of Death
Many nature writers find their most profound subject matter in their
exploration of their relationship to the cycles of living and dying. In
this week’s readings we look to writers who bring the experience of death
to the forefront of their studies about what it means to live.
Mary Oliver, Terry Tempest Williams, Paul Gruchow, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen
Week 4: Dwelling and the Indigenous Spirit
Native American writers speak to the experience of living in concert or in relation with a place. What impact does that have on our concept of being at home in the world or having a sense of place. In this week’s readings we look at the work of some of the seminal Native American writers of the last twenty years to see their understanding of how the relationship with place affects the nature of the spirit.
Texts: Vine Deloria, Joseph Marshall III, Leslie Marmon Silko, Keith Basso, Leonard Peltier
Week 5: Science, Wonder, and the Spirit
Although many scientists claim to be atheists, most speak to the sense of wonder that their work evokes. In this week’s readings we explore the spiritual life of scientists, looking at the ways in which their work fuses creativity, wonder, and often a sense of faith in the processes of the natural world. While their theories of how the world functions may differ, they share a sense of the creative in all.
Texts: E. L. Grant Watson, Charles Darwin, Evelyn Fox Keller, Jane Goodall
Week 6: A Passion for the Prehistoric
Why do so many nature writers look to the prehistoric for their inspiration? Do they feel there is something “purer” in the past or is it the desire to connect to something they believe is at the very base of being human. In this week’s study we look at the way in which prehistory is used by ecospiritual writers to explain very modern views on the world.
Texts: Paul Shepard, Bill Kittredge, Jack Turner, Bruce Chatwin, Alexander Marshack
Week 7: Nature Writers Now and Zen
Much of mid-Twentieth Century nature writing dealt with the explosive fusion on eastern philosophy on the west. In that fusion was born a sense of Zen philosophy as a means for explicating the experiences of living “in nature.” This week’s readings explore some of the finest of the Zen nature writers to see the role of Zen and Taoist philosophy on their interpretations of their experiences in the natural world.
Texts: Gary Snyder, Peter Matthiessen, Gretel Erlich, Ursula Le Guin, Ryokan, Basho
Week 8: Learner Presentations
Week 9: Learner Presentations
Week 10: Learner Presentations
Requirements:
Prior to Opening Residency:
Learners will complete the required readings in advance of the residency weekend. Each Graduate and Undergraduate Credit learner should submit a three to five page paper by email to the instructor focusing on their sense of the nature of creativity both personally and within the context of the readings.
During the Online Course:
Learners are expected to complete the weekly readings and participate in the discussions. Each week, Graduate and Undergraduate Credit learners must complete a reflection piece by Friday. All Graduate and Undergraduate Credit learners must submit a project by the end of the sixth week of the course which will be used in the final three weeks of presentations.
Following Closing Residency:
Graduate and Undergraduate Credit learners are to complete a three to five page reflection essay, within ten days of the closing residency, discussing changes and thoughts regarding the process of the course as it relates to their own thinking about their research and lives.
Credit will only be given for learners who successfully complete all aspects of the course.
Required Texts:
Deloria, Vine. God is Red. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Press, 1994.
Williams, Terry Tempest. Leap. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.
Plus One of the Following:
Chatwin, Bruce. The Songlines. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
Dooling, D. M. The Sons of the Wind: The Sacred Stories of the Lakota. New York: Parabola Books, 1984.
Erlich, Gretel. The Solace of Open Spaces. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.
Gruchow, Paul. Grassroots: The Universe of Home. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1995.
Hogan, Linda. Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World. New York: Touchstone Books, 1995.
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Gift From the Sea. New York: Pantheon, 1955.
Matthiessen, Peter. The Snow Leopard. New York: Random House, 1973.
Kittredge, William. The Nature of Generosity. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.
Supplemental Resources:
Berndt, Ronald M. and Berndt, Catherine H. The Speaking Land: Myth and Story in Aboriginal Australia. London: Penguin Books, 1989.
Bruchac, Joseph. Survival This Way: Interviews with American Indian Poets. Tucson: Sun Tracks and University of Arizona Press, 1987.
Dubos, Rene. A God Within. New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1972.
Nelson, Richard K. The Island Within. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1989.
Peltier, Leonard. Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Sanders, Scott Russell. Secrets of the Universe: Scenes from the Journey Home. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991.
Thoreau, Henry David. Faith in a Seed. Washington: Island Press, 1993.
Equipment and Facilities:
This course will be led on the eCollege system through Union Institute and University. Learners are expected to have access to the internet and, installed on their computers, the latest (free) versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and an unzip program.