Writing as a Naturalist

We are living at a time when there is a growing consensus about the threat that global warming poses for life on earth. And we are also living at a time when the traditional media outlets have lost their power to create a general audience and a shared sense of urgency. If one wishes to understand climate change, what resources are to be trusted? Print media? Government Agencies? Scientific reports? And where are the solutions to climate change to be found? In science? In the political realm? In citizen movements? In education?

In this two-week writing intensive class, students will have the opportunity to approach these overarching questions about climate change by exploring a number of local projects currently underway at Rutgers--the solar farm under construction on Livingston campus; the "greening" project on the College Avenue campus; and the transportation "gateway" building going up in New Brunswick. Students will work in groups to compose idea-driven, visual essays that bring these examples into conversation with the larger challenges posed by climate change.

In a world where information is ubiquitous and the potential to publish ones thoughts is available to all who have access to the web, what it means to write and to pursue research has been fundamentally changed. To function in this new environment, one must acquire a basic familiarity with the shape of a visual essay and the tools for multimedia composition. To assist us in introducing these contemporary tools for composing, we have arranged for Bill Gentile, Artist in Residence at American University, to move students through three days of immersive exercises on the technical aspects of setting up and shooting nonfiction projects. The remainder of the course will be devoted to guiding students through the process of constructing an idea-driven visual essay—a process that is driven by active research, work with still and moving images, participation in multiple screening, and ongoing revision.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• education
• humanities
• newhumanities
• newmedia
• composition
• multimedia
• multimediacomposition
• richardmiller
• paulhammond

[Fikenhild]

Very glitzy, but I'm wondering what the connection to writing is--other than the announcement that there is one. Couldn't this be an advertisement for any Environmental Studies course or, more appropriately, the Environmental Studies major?

[newhumanities]

These are both good questions and are exactly in line with what we hoped viewers would ask: what does it mean to write in the 21st century and what is the proper subject of a writing course? Over the next couple of months, we'll be posting pieces that reflect on how the course unfolded and what we learned in the process. In the meantime, if you check out "This is How We Dream," you'll get a fuller explanation of the thinking about teaching and writing that led to the creation of this course.

[bioonestop]

This video is epic! This course is excellent.