I. ASCRC General Education Form
Group
VI. Historical and Cultural Studies
Dept/Program
Course #
Applied Arts and
Sciences
Course Title
Nature and Society
Prerequisite
WTS/ENEX 101
Credits
CLS 167 H
3
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office
Please type / print name Signature
Susann Bradford
Instructor
243-7824
Phone / Email
sue.bradford@mso.umt.edu
Cathy Corr
Program Chair
Barry Good
Dean
Date
III. Description and purpose of the course: General Education courses must be introductory
and foundational. They must emphasize breadth, context, and connectedness; and relate course
content to students’ future lives: See Preamble:
http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/gened/GEPreamble_final.htm
Nature and Society explores the relationship between ideas about nature and the development
of political and social ideas, institutions, and practices in primarily western (Euro-American)
society. The idea of nature is explored as a broad theme appearing in writings from different
historical periods and cultural settings within the development of contemporary Western
society. This provides the foundation for understanding the contemporary field of
Environmental Studies.
Students will examine how distinct meanings of nature reflect different environmental and
social conditions of various periods, how ideas have changed in the wake of modern scientific
discoveries and technological development, and how this influences contemporary
environmental thought. Texts by influential authors of major historical periods will be
examined critically and comparatively by means of class discussions and writing assignments.
Students are encouraged to make connections between ideas, writers, and thinkers of the past
and contemporary environmental thought, explore their own ideas about nature, and
contemplate their role in nature and society.
IV. Criteria: Briefly explain how this course meets the criteria for the group. See:
http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/ASCRCx/Adocuments/GE_Criteria5-1-08.htm
1. This course requires students to express ideas and information to explain how historic
events such as the scientific revolution and changing social, political, and environmental
conditions have influenced the development of western ideas about nature, changed the
relationship between society and nature, and contributed to the emergence of contemporary
environmental thought. Students will develop these expressive skills both through
participation in class discussions and through thematically focused writing assignments.
2. Students will evaluate the meaning and treatment of “nature” in primary texts from major
periods in Western cultural development by examining these in relation to the cultural
contexts, social conditions, technologies, political institutions, and historic events that
characterize these periods.
3. Students will analyze human ideas about nature and related cultural practices within specific
cultural and historical settings to understand how ideas and practices shape one another and
how these have been influenced by changing social conditions and historic events.
4. This course will use an interdisciplinary, cultural studies approach to explore complex
interactions between texts, ideas, social forms, and historic events. The cultural studies
tradition draws on analytical techniques from a variety of disciplines, including literary
criticism, ethnography, sociology, history, and the humanities. Students will examine the
development of ideas using a combination of humanistic discourse, critical analyses of textual
meanings, comparative analyses of social and cultural forms, and causal analyses of historical
events. The course will is organized as a broad thematic study focused on the development of
ideas about nature and human-nature interactions, and is structured by a chronological
sequence of distinct historical periods. The course explores the foundations of Environmental
Studies.
V. Student Learning Goals: Briefly explain how this course will meet the applicable learning
goals. See: http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/ASCRCx/Adocuments/GE_Criteria5-1-08.htm
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Identify distinct concepts of nature that correspond to major historical periods and
cultural settings.
2. Describe and compare how contrasting ideas about nature are reflected in different
human institutions or practices.
3. Recognize the importance of historical factors on contemporary environmental thought,
particularly scientific advancements, technology, and changes in social organization.
4. Articulate personal perspectives on nature and human-nature interactions and relate
these to historical ideas, thinkers, and events.
5. Participate in discourse and analysis to develop meanings and recognize diverse
interpretations of texts and historical events.
6. Express an understanding of the complexity of ideas, both of nature and humanity’s
roles with respect to nature, and how this can affect human decisions and lifestyle
choices.
VII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form. ⇓ The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus
preparation see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
See attached.
*Please note: As an instructor of a general education course, you will be expected to provide
sample assessment items and corresponding responses to the Assessment Advisory Committee.
CLS 167 H: Nature and Society
2008 Course Syllabus
Instructor: Dr. Sue Bradford
Office/Mailbox: HB 02, UM-COT Campus
Email: Sue.Bradford@mso.umt.edu
Phone: 243-7824 (message only)
Office Hours: TBA; and by arrangement
Required Texts:
•
•
Marshall, Peter. Nature’s Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth (London: M.E.
Sharpe, 1992). ISBN: 1-55778-652-6.
Additional ERES Readings: On Electronic Reserve at the Mansfield Library
website.
Course Purpose:
This course explores the relationship between ideas about nature and the development of
political and social ideas, institutions, and practices in primarily western (EuroAmerican) society. We will examine the idea of nature in influential writings from major
historical periods and in contemporary environmental texts to consider how these
formulations reflect distinct cultural settings, social conditions, political institutions,
changing technologies, and other historical factors or events. Students are encouraged to
make connections between ideas, writers, and thinkers of the past and the emergence of
contemporary environmental thought, develop their own ideas about nature, and
contemplate their place in nature and society. This course satisfies the General Education
requirement for Perspective H, Historical and Cultural Studies, for students in the 2-year
AA and AAS degree programs.
Learning Objectives:
Students completing this course will be able to:
7. Identify distinct concepts of nature that correspond to major historical periods and
cultural settings.
8. Describe and compare how contrasting ideas about nature are reflected in
different human institutions or practices.
9. Recognize the importance of historical factors on contemporary environmental
thought, particularly scientific advancements, technology, and changes in social
organization.
10. Articulate personal perspectives on nature and human-nature interactions and
relate these to historical ideas, thinkers, and events.
11. Participate in discourse and analysis to develop meanings and recognize diverse
interpretations of texts and historical events.
12. Express an understanding of the complexity of ideas, both of nature and
humanity’s roles with respect to nature, and how this can affect human decisions
and lifestyle choices.
Note on Course Structure:
This course is structured as a traditional discussion seminar meeting twice weekly. Please
note that the quality of class discussions and activities will depend greatly on the quality
of student preparation and participation. With this in mind, I will expect students to
attend regularly, be on time, and read the assigned material in preparation for each class.
Course Requirements and Evaluation Criteria:
1. Attendance. I value your full participation in class. Roll will be taken at each class
session and you will earn one point for each full class attended.
2. Participation in Discussions. Your contribution to class discussions is important.
This develops your speaking and listening skills and enriches our collective
understanding of cultural ideas. One point will be awarded for each class when you
participate in either whole class or small group discussions.
3. Reflective Essay 1 (week 3/5). Choose one of our assigned readings and write a 2-3
page reflective essay that expresses how you think this author defines “nature” and
whether you agree or disagree with this view. Give examples to illustrate why this
definition of nature does or does not make sense in relation to your own experiences
of nature. Your first draft will be worth 20 points and your final draft will be worth
20 points.
4. Reflective Essay 2 (week 7/9). Choose a second of our assigned readings and write a
2-3 page reflective essay that explores how this author’s idea of nature can be seen in
examples of human social institutions or practices. Include a reference to the text that
supports your interpretation. Your first draft will be worth 20 points and your final
draft will be worth 20 points.
5. Comparative Paper (week 11/13). Building on your previous essays, write a 5-7
page paper that describes and compares two distinct concepts of nature, and identifies
how these are related to different human social institutions or practices. Your first
draft will be worth 30 points and your final draft will be worth 30 points.
6. Final Presentation (Finals week). Create a poster, collage, essay, or poem to share
with the class as an expression of what “nature” means in your life. This project is
worth 20 points.
Grades:
Overall grades will be based on the percentage of the total possible points (220) earned
by each student. A summary of assignments and points and the grading scale are shown
in the following tables:
Summary of Assignments & Points
Attendance
Participation
Reflective Essay 1
Reflective Essay 2
Comparative Paper
Final Presentation
TOTAL =
=
=
30 points
30 points
= 40 points
= 40 points
=
60 points
=
20 points
220 points
GRADING SCALE
90% 100%
A
80% - 89%
B
70% - 79%
C
60% - 69%
D
0% - 59%
F
Additional Information:
•
Electronic Reserves (ERES): To access the ERES readings, go to the following
website: <http://eres.lib.umt.edu/>. Click on “Electronic Reserves and Course
Materials” and then select “BRADFORD, Susann” from the list of instructors.
Click on the course name, “CLS 167,” and enter the
password:_________________.
•
Getting Help: Please feel welcome to talk with me about your assignment ideas
and let me know if you have special needs or circumstances that affect your
performance in class. I will have regular Office Hours each week and can arrange
appointments at other times when we can meet outside of class. In general, the
best way to contact me is by email, but I also receive phone messages and notes at
my mailbox in HB 02.
•
The Writing Center: The Writing Center is an excellent resource offering
professional tutoring in writing for UM students at both the UM-COT Campus
and on the Main Campus. Weekly hours for the new semester will be announced
in class.
•
Accommodations: Students with disabilities will receive reasonable
accommodations in this course. To request course modifications, please contact
me as soon as possible. I will work with you and Disability Services (DSS) in the
accommodation process. For more information, contact Disability Services at
(406) 243-2243 or visit their website at <http://www.umt.edu/dss/>.
•
Ethical Conduct: Ethical conduct is expected in all of your communications and
academic activities during this course. Please be advised that cheating is not
tolerated and will be handled in accordance with the University of Montana
Student Conduct Code. You can view this document on the Internet at the
following website:
<http://ordway.umt.edu/SA/documents/fromWeb/StudentConductCode1.pdf>
List of ERES Readings
1. Larry Rasmussen. “Sweet Betsy and Her Avalanche” in Earth Community, Earth Ethics
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1996), pp. 38-52.
2. Edward O. Wilson. “The Diversity of Life” in Matthew A. Cahn and Rory O’Brien, eds.
Thinking About the Environment: Readings on Politics, Property, and the Physical World
(London: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 193-195.
3. Anne Ehrlich and Paul Ehrlich. “Extinction: Life in Peril” in Lori Gruen and Dale
Jamieson, eds. Reflecting on Nature: Readings in Environmental Philosophy (New York
and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp 335-342.
4. John J. Poggie, Jr., Gretel H. Pelto, Pertti J. Pelto. “Introduction” to The Evolution of
Human Adaptations” (New York: Macmillan, 1976), pp. 1-15.
5. Jared Diamond. “Up to the Starting Line” from Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1999), pp 35-52.
6. Jared Diamond. “Farmer Power” from Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1999), pp 85-92.
7. Jared Diamond. “History’s Haves and Have-nots” from Guns, Germs, and Steel: The
Fates of Human Societies (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1999), pp 93-103.
8. Jared Diamond. “To Farm or Not to Farm” from Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1999), pp 104-113.
9. Mitchell Thomashow. “Voice of Ecological Identity” in Ecological Identity: Becoming a
Reflective Environmentalist (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: MIT Press, 1995),
pp 1-24.
10. J. John Palen. “Emergence of Cities” from The Urban World (New York: McGraw-Hill,
2004), pp 21-57.
11. Daniel Hillel. “Environment and Culture: A Premise and Its Implications” in The
Natural History of the Bible (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), pp 11-25.
12. Hebrew Bible selections from Roger Gottlieb, ed. This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature,
Environment (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), pp 77-89.
13. Lynn White. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” in Richard, Foltz, ed.
Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment (Thomson-Wadsworth, 2003), pp. 30-37.
14. Victor Ferkiss. “To Serve Man or to Serve Nature?” in Nature, Technology, and Society:
Cultural Roots of the Current Environmental Crisis (New York and London: New York
University Press, 1993), pp 1-17, 226-231.
15. Rene Descartes. “Part Two: The Principle Rules of the Method” in Discourse on Method
and Meditations (Upper Saddle River, JN: Prentice Hall, 1952), pp 10-17.
16. John Locke. “Of Property” from The Two Treatises of Government. (Lonang Institute,
2003-2006).
17. Victor Ferkiss. “Technology Triumphs: The Industrial Revolution” in Nature,
Technology, and Society: Cultural Roots of the Current Environmental Crisis (New York
and London: New York University Press, 1993), pp 47-63, 232-235.
18. Charles Darwin. Selections from The Origin of Species (New York and London: W. w.
Norton, 2002), pp. 27-30, 115-121.
19. Donald Worster. “Scrambling for Place” from Nature’s Economy: The Roots of Ecology”
(New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 145-169.
20. Henry David Thoreau. “Walking” from the Pennsylvania State University’s Electronic
Classics Series (1998), pp 3-32.
21. Roderick Nash. “Henry David Thoreau: Philosopher” in Wilderness and the American
Mind (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973), pp. 84-95.
22. Roderick Nash. “John Muir: Publicizer” in Wilderness and the American Mind (New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973), pp. 122-140.
23. John Muir. “The Philosophy of John Muir” from The Wilderness World of John Muir
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954), pp 311-323.
24. John Muir. “Quotes from John Muir”(Wikiquote).
25. Aldo Leopold. “Thinking Like a Mountain” from A Sand County Almanac (New York:
Sierra Club / Ballantine, 1966), pp. 137-141.
26. Robert Marshall. “On the People’s Forests 1933” from Carolyn Merchant, ed. Major
Problems in American Environmental History (Berkeley: University of California, 1993),
pp. 109-110.
27. Roderick Nash. “Aldo Leopold: Prophet” and “Decisions for Permanence” in Wilderness
and the American Mind (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973), pp.182209.
28. Aldo Leopold. “The Land Ethic” from A Sand County Almanac (London, Oxford and
New York: Oxford University Press, 1949), pp. 201-226.
29. Rachel Carson. Excerpts from Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson.
Linda Lear, editor. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998), pp. 101-109, 197-200, 211-222, 227245.
30. Douglas H. Strong. “Rachel Carson” in Dreamers and Defenders: American
Conservationists (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1971, 1988), pp
177-195.
31. Philip Shabecoff. “Saving Ourselves” from A Fierce Green Fire: The American
Environmental Movement (Washington and London: Island Press, 2003), pp 103-119.
32. Philip Shabecoff. “The Environmental Revolution” from A Fierce Green Fire: The
American Environmental Movement (Washington and London: Island Press, 2003), pp
121-139.
33. Arne Naess. “Ecology: The Shallow and the Deep” in Matthew A. Cahn and Rory
O’Brien, eds. Thinking About the Environment: Readings on Politics, Property, and the
Physical World (London: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 167-172.
34. Bill Devall and George Sessions. “Principles of Deep Ecology” in Richard Foltz, ed.
Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment (Thomson-Wadsworth, 2003), pp 434-440.
35. Garret Hardin. “The Tragedy of the Commons” and “Second Thoughts on ‘The Tragedy
of the Commons’” in Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend, eds. Valuing the
Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics (Cambridge, MA & London: MIT Press, 1993), pp.
127-151.
36. Barry Commoner. “The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology” in Matthew A.
Cahn and Rory O’Brien, eds. Thinking About the Environment: Readings on Politics,
Property, and the Physical World (London: M. E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 161-166.
37. Giovanna Di Chiro. “Nature as Community: the Convergence of Environmental and
Social Justice” in William Cronon, ed. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place
in Nature (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1996), pp 298-320.
38. Vine Deloria, Jr. “Sacred Lands and Religious Freedom” in For This Land: Writings on
Religion in America (New York and London: Routledge, 1999), pp 203-213.
39. George Tinker. “Native Americans and the Land: ‘The End of Living and the Beginning
of Survival’" from Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite and Mary Potter Engel, eds.
Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside (San Francisco: Harper and Row,
1990), pp. 141-151.
40. Mary Evelyn Tucker Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase.
(Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court, 2003), pp. 3-18.
41. Tu Wei-ming. “Beyond the Enlightenment Mentality” from Worldview and Ecology:
Religion, Philosophy, and the Environment. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, editors,
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994), pp. 19-29.
42. Gary Gardner. “Engaging Religion in the Quest for a Sustainable World.” In State of the
World 2003: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society. New
York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp. 152-175.
43. Janine Benyus. “Echoing Nature: Why Biomimicry Now?” from Biomimicry: Innovation
Inspired by Nature (New York: William Morrow, 1997), pp. 1-10.
44. Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins. “The Next Industrial Revolution” from
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston, New York, and
London: Little, Brown and Company, 1999), pp. 1-21.
45. Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins. “Human Capitalism” from Natural
Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Boston, New York, and London:
Little, Brown and Company, 1999), pp. 285-308.