Notes
Add valiant and exp document early
Edit van trump
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History 122 a & b
Ecotopia?:
Landscape & Identity
in the Pacific Northwest
Fall 2010
Instructor: Doug Sackman• email: dsackman@ups.edu
Phone: 3913 • Office: Wyatt 138
• Office Hours: Tu: 10-11.30; Friday 11-11.50am (I am also available to
meet with you at other times; just email me for an appointment)
• Webpage: http://www.ups.edu/faculty/dsackman/
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Overview
In his novel Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach envisioned Northern California,
Oregon, and Washington separating from the USA to become a break-way
“green” republic. Using this imagined place as a kind of base camp, we will
explore the multifaceted relationship between landscape and human identity
in the region. We will ask: How have different peoples encountered,
experienced, and represented the environment in the Pacific Northwest?
How has the environment, or at least their understandings of it, shaped their
sense of who they are or want to become?
Like soil, “landscape” has many layers. We could say that the bottom layer
is the natural environment in all of its complexity; on top of that are the
human-made changes that have transformed the natural world into human
habitats; and on top of these, are the leaves and humus of cultural values and
human representations of nature. Identity is a no less complicated term, but
for now we can simply say that it is what we believe our selves to be. It is
the meaning we connect to our existence. While there are many factors
that shape human identity (family relations, for example), this course seeks
to uncover the role and place of landscape in shaping and expressing human
identity. We will explore how Americans’ contact with and experience of
nature and each other in the region has been mediated by the landscapes
they have created, whether they be the constructed wilderness of Mount
Rainier, the watery world of Puget Sound, or the Skid Roads and Space
Needles of the region’s cities.
Landscapes are both places in which people struggle over resources—or
such issues as the building and placement of monuments or waste sites—and
they are places that are imbued with value and memory. The values and
memories are created over time. Because of this, much of the course will be
devoted to looking at how landscapes change in the past and to putting the
landscapes that exist now into historical context.
Format and Objectives
In the above description, I have emphasized what “we” will do. I mean that:
the course is meant to be a collaborative investigation. Class time will be
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devoted largely to discussions of the readings and the issues they touch
upon. These include novels, historical documents, as well as art history and
environmental and natural history. We will also take at least one group field
trips during the course of the term. Students will be asked to make their
own landscape excursions as well.
I’ve designed the course to give you a range of opportunities to participate
in the class and contribute to its course. Of course, you are encouraged to
actively engage with discussions, raising questions, making points and
otherwise contributing to the flow of the conversation. Note that the
reading load for this course is heavy and in some cases involves material that
is quite dense. The readings for the course are extensive, and essential. Your
reactions to the content, ideas and evidence presented in the reading will be
crucial to what we do in class. Doing the reading in time for class is thus
critical to the success of the course.
In reading selections, you will find it useful to take notes and write down
particular questions you might have or topics you would like to discuss. As a
student, I found that underlining or highlighting passages, while helpful, was
not the best way to prepare me to participate in class discussions. I started
to take notes on a separate sheet of paper (or on my computer), listing the
relevant page number on the left and then some idea or quote that I found
interesting next to it. In class, then, I could use this as an index of my ideas,
and then point to a particular passage as a basis for a question or to present
my perspective on a particular issue. You may find that developing a notetaking system will work for you. Please bring the readings to class on the day
for which they are assigned. If you do not do the readings, you will get little
out of the class. If you do the readings, but have nothing to say about them,
then the class as a whole will suffer. The more you get involved, the more
you will get out of the class, and the more exciting, engaging, and successful
the class will be as whole.
As a Scholarly and Creative Inquiry Course, Ecotopia allows students to
develop a serious, informed and deep engagement with the seminar’s topic.
Ideally, students in this course:
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• Will develop an analytic, personal and “grounded” understanding of the
relationship between landscape and identity in the Pacific Northwest
• Will develop their skills of oral and written expression
• Will develop their abilities to make a sustained, scholarly argument,
including being able to formulate a position on an open-ended topic and
effectively use evidence to support that position
• Will develop their abilities to read texts of all kinds closely, interpret their
significance, and express their understandings and evaluations to others in
the class
• Will gain practice working collaboratively with their peers
• Will gain practice in “reading” landscapes
• Will develop their sense of intellectual and creative integrity and
independence
Readings
1. Ernest Callenbach, Ecotopia
2. David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars
3. Molly Gloss, Wild Life
4. John Valliant, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed
5. Jonathan Raban, Waxwings
6. Charles Wilkinson, with Billy Frank Jr. Messages from Frank’s Landing
7. Ecotopia Reader (photocopied collection of primary source documents,
stories, poems, and scholarly articles, available in bookstore)
Evaluation
A. Attendance, Participation, Discussion Papers and Document
Gathering Assignments (24%)
This category includes reading, attendance & participation in discussions.
Regular attendance is expected. Students can participate in class by making
points and connections, raising questions, listening and responding to the
comments of other students, and otherwise engaging with the flow of the
discussion. The Discussion Papers, which will not be graded but will be
assigned a number from 0-4 that assesses their general quality, give you a
chance to consider the reading assigned for the day that the discussion
paper is due and pose a question or raise an issue that the class as a whole
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might discuss in our class session. You will have a discussion paper due 7
times in the course of the term; you may skip one day of your own
choosing. In other words, you are required to turn in 6 discussion papers.
[Guidelines below in the syllabus]. In addition, there are also two document
gathering assignments (due fro your group on the dates indicated in the
course schedule), and a write-up on the Mount Rainier field trip.
B. Tacoma Landscapes Paper (18%)
A 5 page paper exploring 2 types of Tacoma Landscapes: (Choose among
Industrial, Commercial, Sacred, Park, Residential or Public Landscapes);
guidelines will be distributed in class.
C. Interpretive Essay (20%)
A 5-7 page paper due in week 11 related to the readings and issues of the
course. Topics and guidelines to be distributed by week 8.
D. Final Project (26%)
The Final Project involves the following four components:
a. Scouting Report: A Prospectus for your Final Project due in
week 12.
b. A 6-8 page, analytic essay on a particular landscape and/or a particular
“text” about landscape. Must include a bibliography with at least 6
sources. (This reflects the “scholarly inquiry” aspect of the seminar.)
c. Your own “Landscape Portrait.” You present another mode of
engaging with the landscape that is the subject of your analytic essay.
Photographs, personal essay, poetry, “landscape event” (ask me),
artwork, website, video, collage, music…use your imagination. (This
reflects the “creative inquiry” aspect of the seminar.)
More specific guidelines for the final project will be distributed later in class.
E. Presentation (5%): An in-class presentation of 5-7 minutes on a
person, place or thing—or an animal, vegetable or mineral—that is a
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significant part of the Pacific Northwest. The presentation should be
informative as well as interpretive. A bibliography listing at least three
sources consulted must be turned in on the day of the presentation. A signup sheet for topics will be distributed in the second week of classes.
F. Quizzes (7%): There will be three “pop” quizzes. These will be multiple
choice and short answer questions for the reading on a particular day (and
may incude questions on the reading from a few days prior as well). The
quiz will be done at the beginning of class. Your lowest score of the three
quizzes will be dropped.
Discussion Papers: Guidelines
The class is divided into 4 “groups”—A, B. C, and D. (This is for the
purpose of dividing up the class—you will be writing your discussion papers
individually, not in groups). Discussion Papers for your group are due on the
days indicated in the course schedule (below). Under no circumstances,
including computer failure, may Discussion Papers be turned in late. (In
certain circumstances, I may allow you to switch the day for which you
write a discussion paper, but you must ask me about this at least 24-hours in
advance). Discussion Papers should be typed and between 1 and 2 pages
long. The Discussion Papers involve two components: a topic discussion and
an issue identification:
Topic Discussion (part 1 of the discussion paper): For the topic
discussion, I would like you to write 2-3 paragraphs or so about some
aspect of the reading for that day that grabs your attention and you
would like to discuss. I am not looking for you to summarize the reading.
Instead, I would like you to identify some theme or issue raised in the
reading and interpret its significance. You need not deal with the reading
as a whole; in fact, you may want to focus on a small part of the larger
reading. You may wish to draw comparisons between the readings of the
day, or between the reading of the day and previous readings. You may
wish to discuss how the reading relates to some larger issue in the class
(e.g. what is landscape? What is the relationship between environment
and culture? What different ideas about the natural world have different
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peoples held, etc). You must include at least one quotation from the
reading in your paper (normally, stronger papers use such citations).
Please provide the page number in a footnote or in parentheses for your
quotations. I will on occasion ask you to summarize or read your topic
discussion for the class.
In including a quote from the reading, please integrate the quotation into
your own sentence, and write the last name of the author and the page
number on which the quotation appears (if available) in parentheses (or
use a footnote, if you prefer). For example, you might write:
Dolores Hayden suggests that a person’s “sense of place is both a
biological response to the surrounding physical environment and a
cultural creation…” (Hayden, 16).
This is one way of linking up the quote to your own words in a sentence.
Avoid just plopping in the quote, i.e., don’t do this:
Peoples’ relationship to the landscape is both physical and mental.
“An individual’s sense of place is both a biological response to the
surrounding physical environment and a cultural creation as
geographer Yi-Fu Tuan has argued” (Hayden, 16).
Issue ID (part 2 of the discussion paper): The second component of
the Discussion Paper is the identification of some issue that can be
suitable for class discussion. This can be two or three sentences long, and
it can be as simple as identifying a quote from one of the readings that
you find illuminating and interesting or questionable and briefly stating
what important issue you see in the quote. You might also raise a point of
comparison between readings. The issue may be related to your topic
discussion, though it need not be. Be prepared with these: I will on
occasion ask you to present your issue id in class as a way to start
discussion.
The Importance of Preparation (notes, reading journal): To work well,
each and every student needs to do the reading, and to reflect upon it. That
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is, you need to come to class not only having taken in the words, but also
thinking about their implications. To encourage responsible reading and
reflection in the course (as well as cultivate sound college course
preparation habits), you my find it a good idea to take notes on the reading
and keep a reading journal. A better way to take notes than writing in the
margin is to use a separate sheet of paper, or keep an ongoing reading
journal. Whenever something happens that you want to note or remember,
or some quote appears that is interesting to you, make an entry in your
notes. Write the page number on the left, and the quote, or word, or
observation next to it. As a bonus, you can use these notes that you take on
quizzes. Such notes are also useful when you write your papers.
Grading Policies
The work in all of the above categories will be taken into account to
determine your final grade. In general, the writing asks you to go far beyond
the recitation of facts and information. You will be formulating your own
ideas and arguments, gathering and organizing evidence to support your
positions, and putting it all together in finished essays that are at their best
polished, engaging, original, creative, and/or provocative. The Discussion
Papers are more informal in orientation, and one of their purposes is to
allow you to pursue your ideas and hone your writing talents without the
pressure of grades. The following statements will give you some idea what
level of work and participation constitutes what kind of grade in this course:
Work that is of D-level or below does not rise to the standards of
expectations in the class, which are reflected in the description of C-level
work.
C-level work is considered both average and respectable in this course.
Work that merits a C represents a serious engagement with the class and
the course materials by the student. For papers, this means that the paper
deals with its topic, makes use of the proper number and type of sources,
shows that the student has grappled with the readings and issues, and
advances a central idea or thesis. Yet, the thesis may be vague and there may
be problems with the mechanics, organization or clarity of the paper. In
terms of participation, the C-level student regularly attends, is attentive to
what is going on in the classroom, occasionally offers ideas and perspectives
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in class, completes the Discussion Papers in satisfactory fashion, and willingly
contributes to small group discussions.
B-level work is very good. It represents both serious engagement with and
reasonable mastery of the course material. The B-level student maintains
their degree of engagement throughout the course, and usually their work
shows improvement. Papers that merit a B are well-crafted and organized,
advance a central thesis that addresses the paper’s topic in an interesting or
illuminating fashion, are mostly free from mechanical and grammatical errors,
draw effectively on a range of materials, and are generally persuasive and
cogent in their argument. B-level participation involves regular attendance
and participation in class discussions, and is an active and engaged listener as
well (showing that he or she can pick up on the contributions made by
others in the class) Comments and contributions are often based on a
careful consideration of the readings. For example, such a student may
sometimes point to a specific passage in the text to back up or develop their
comment or question.
A-level work is exceptional. Not only do A-level papers display all of the
good qualities of a B-paper, their central argument is advanced with an
exceptionally impressive degree of sophistication, originality or insight. The
paper’s organization, craft and use of evidence are all excellent. In terms of
participation, contributions to class discussions are both frequent and
particularly insightful.
Late Policy: Assignments that are up to 24 hours late will receive a 1/3
grade reduction (e.g. a B would become a B-); assignments turned in more
than one but less than two days late will be lowered 2/3 of a grade; work
turned in 3 days late will be lowered a full grade; work turned in beyond 3
days late will receive a 1 1/3 reduction.
Academic Honesty
Faith in your academic integrity is vital to all we do at UPS. It should go
without saying that the college expects that all work submitted for
evaluation in courses will be the product of the student’s own labor and
imagination. Of course, you are free to speak with others about your work
and share ideas and perspectives. In writing your papers, though, you are
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developing your own ideas and arguments. You can incorporate the ideas or
words of others in your own paper, but to do so you must properly cite
your sources. Turning in a paper that attempts to pass off the words or
ideas of others as your own constitutes plagiarism (see The Logger (aka
“The Academic Handbook”) for more information on plagiarism and
University policies on academic honesty, online at
http://www.ups.edu/x4718.xml). Like other forms of cheating, plagiarism is a
contamination that pollutes our environment. Students who knowingly turn
in work that involves plagiarism or is marred by other forms of cheating will
not pass the course (i.e., they will receive an F), though more severe
penalties may be recommended for egregious cases.
One can understand the temptation to turn in illegitimate work: students
working under intense pressures may turn to cheating as an easy way out.
But to do so, you not only steal the work of others, you cheat yourself and
your fellow students as well. A real degree from UPS cannot be obtained
through looting. If you are worried about your grade or completing an
assignment, please come and talk to me. I can work with you to help you get
over the hurdles and make it possible for you to get something positive out
of the course.
Course Schedule
^^^^^
Note: Readings with a number are from the Ecotopia Reader, the
photocopied packet of readings; bulleted readings are from the books. Each
Week is Numbered. Groups that have a discussion paper due on the
readings for that day are noted in the brackets after the designated day (for
example, members of groups a, b, and c have discussion papers due in class
on the second class meeting).
Part 1: Landscape, Identity and the
Pacific Northwest: Conceptual Foundations
Week 1 (week of August 30): Groundwork: Defining Landscape
1.1 Introduction: Mapping Home and Going to the Mountaintop (MLK
mountaineering)
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1 . 2 [Discussion Papers due for Groups A, B, and C*]::
Reading [all can be found in the Ecotopia Reader]:
Prologue: Wallace Stegner, "The Sense of Place", i-iii
1. J.B. Jackson, “On the Word Landscape”, 2-5
2. Tim Cresswell, “Defining Place”, 6-12
* For the discussion paper this time:
Group A—please focus on reading “Prologue” (Stegner) for the topic
discussion and issue id, but be sure to read all 3 of the readings
Group B—please focus on reading 1 (Jackson) for the topic discussion
and issue id, but be sure to read all 3 of the readings
Group C--focus on reading 2 (Cresswell) for the topic discussion and
issue id, but be sure to read all 3 of the readings
Week 2 (Sept 6-): The Regional Landscape
2 . 1 [ G r o u p D ] : Socio-political and natural histories of “place”
3. Dolores Hayden, “The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space”, 1324
6. Arthur Kruckeberg, “A Natural History of Puget Sound”,
2.2 [Group A; + document gathering (see below)] Literature, Geography
and the Historical Construction of a Regional Icon
4. Barry Lopez, “A Literature of Place” , 25-27
5. Barry Lopez, “American Geographies”, 28-34
22. John Findlay, “A Fishy Proposition”, 133-150
<<document gathering assignment due in class for all groups >>:
Find an advertisement (from a magazine, newspaper or from television) that
makes use of landscape imagery to sell a product. In a paragraph, please
analyze how the advertisement uses such imagery to sell the product. In the
course of your discussion, you must use an appropriate quote from one of
the Lopez readings.
Part II.
Native Americans and Euro-Americans: Encounters and
Perceptions of Landscape in the Region
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Week 3 (Sept 13-) Native American Perceptions of Nature and
Europeans Perceptions of Nature and Native Americans (Feb. 1-):
3.1 [Group B]:
17. Yakima Creation Story, 113
18. Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton, from Native American
Architecture, 114-118
• Messages from Frank’s Landing, 3-46
3.2 [Group C]:
• Messages from Frank’s Landing, 49-104
19. Coll Thrush, excerpt from Native Seattle, 119-124
Week 4 (Sept 20-):
<<Tacoma Landscapes Paper Due Monday by 5pm; please turn them in to
the folder next to my office, Wyatt 138>>
Monday night (time TBA, screening in dorm): Film 1: Dead Man
4.1 [Group D]:
21. Seattle’s Speech, 131-132
23. Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn”, 151-160
Part III: Wilderness, the Mountain, Logging
Landscapes, and Gender
4.2 [Group A]:
8. John Muir, “Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the Far West”, 51
10. William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness”, 64-75
37. Lisa Blee, “Mount Rainer and Indian Economies of Place,” 271-283
Mount Rainier Field Trip
Saturday Sept 25, 10am-@ 6pm: section B
Sunday Sept 26, 10am-@ 6pm: section A
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Week 5 (Sept 27-)
5.1 [Group B]:
7. Denise Levertov, “Settling”, 50
9a. Philemon Van Trump, “First Ascent of Mount Tacoma” , 52-62
9b. Arthur Tulee, “The Ascension”, 63
16. Gary Snyder, excerpt from Back on the Fire, 106-112
5.2 [Group C]:
• Molly Gloss, Wild Life, 17-64
38. Virginia Scharff and Carolyn Brucken, excerpt from Home Lands: How
Women Made the West, 283b-307 *
Week 6 (Oct 4-):
6.1 [Group D]:
• Gloss, Wild Life, 65-160
28. Stewart Holbrook, selection from Holy Old Mackinaw, 189-190
6.2 [Group A]
• Gloss, Wild Life, 161-end
[Friday 3.30: History Department Forum and Introduction (optional)]
Week 7 (Oct 11-):
Monday: Film II: Sometimes a Great Notion
7.1 [Group B]:
• Valliant, The Golden Spruce, 3-19; 53-98
29. Ken Kesey, Selection from Sometimes a Great Notion, 191-195
30. David Wagoner, “Elegy for a Forest Clear-cut”, 196-197
7.2: No Class; I am away at the Western History Association conference
(continue reading Valliant)
Week 8 (Oct 18-)
8.1 Fall Break!
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Wed (October 20): Film III: Grizzly Man or Into the Wild
8.2: [Group C]
• Valliant, The Golden Spruce, 99-end
[20-52 recommended]
Week 9 (Oct 25-):
9.1 [D]:
11. Jonathan Raban, “Landscape of the Pacific Northwest”, 76-92
38. Virginia Scharff and Carolyn Brucken, excerpt from Home Lands: How
Women Made the West,
film: Finding Thea
Oct 27: panel discussion on Eco-philosophy and landscape with artist
Ingalena Klennel and Puget Sound faculty, evening (time TBA) [required]
Part IV. Islands of Identity and Racial Divisions on the
Land
9.2: No class; Please attend one session of the race and pedagogy national
conference on Friday (or Saturday morning).
Saturday (both sections):
Field trip on Saturday October 30 to Washington State History Museum and
Museum of Glass, 2.30-@5pm
• The Great Hall of Washington at the Washington State History Museum
• “Glimmering Gone” Exhibit at the Tacoma Museum of Glass by Beth Lipman and
Ingalena Klenell. The exhibition comprises three vignettes, Memento, Landscape, and
Artifacts.…In Landscape, a path will meander around sculpted clear glass components
that hang from the ceiling and rise up from the floor, creating a curtain of glass.
Landscape will reference the pioneering writings of British author Simon Schama and
the paintings of Washingtonian Abby Williams Hill (1861-1943). Showcasing cutting
edge technology, Landscape will be unique in the world of glass.
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Week 10 (Nov 1-):
10.1 [Group A]:
• Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, 3-112
10.2 [Group B]: [Document gathering assignment for Groups A and D: find
a newspaper article that deals with internment. You may wish to use the
historical New York Times or The Los Angeles Times, or The Nation (full text
databases available for newspapers from the Proquest service; see library
website)] Please write a paragraph about the article and relate it to the
reading in some way.
• Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, 113-215
31. Patricia Limerick, “Disorientation and Reorientation”, 198-211
Week 11 (Nov 8-):
11.1 [C]:
• Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, 216-326
11.2: [D]
• Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars, 327-end
[final project introduction part A]
Part V: Seattle @ Y2K: Millennial Dreams and
Globalizing Nightmares
Week 12 (Nov 15-):
<<Paper 2 due Monday by 5pm>>
12.1 [Group B]:
33. James Lyons, “Grunge”, 228-245
35 Matt Klingle, “Salmon and the Limits of Ecotopia in the Emerald City”,
245-262
[final project introduction part B]
[Document gathering assignment for Groups C: find a newspaper article that
deals with salmon or Grunge. You may use one of the newspaper databases
available through the library (including lexus or Washington Newstand). You
may wish to use the historical New York Times or The Los Angeles Times, or
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The Nation (full text databases available for newspapers from the Proquest
service; see library website)] Please write a paragraph about the article and
relate it to the reading in some way.
12.2 [Group C]:
• Jonathan Raban, Waxwings, 1-147
Joe Le Sac’s Port of Tacoma/Iraq/Afghanistan War Protest film (as
“prologue” to Battle in Seattle).
[Document gathering assignment for Group B: find a newspaper article that
deals with the 1999 WTO protests or immigration in the Northwest You
may use one of the newspaper databases available through he library
(including lexus or Washington Newstand). You may wish to use the
historical New York Times or The Los Angeles Times, or The Nation (full text
databases available for newspapers from the Proquest service; see library
website)] Please write a paragraph about the article and relate it to the
reading in some way.
Week 13 (Nov 22-):
Monday Film IV: The Battle in Seattle
13.1
handouts: excerpt from Alternatives to Economic Globalization
excerpt from Thomas Friedman: The Lexus and the Olive Tree
excerpt from David Solnit, “The Battle of the Story of the Battle in
Seattle”
<<scouting report due by Tuesday at 5pm>
Thanksgiving
Week 14 (Nov 29-):
14.1 [Group B]:
• Raban, Waxwings, 147-end
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Part VI: Ecotopia? Imagining a Sustainable
Society Inhabiting the Northwest
14.2: [C]
• Callenbach, Ecotopia, 1-90
also, please read one of the following:
25. “Dropping Out”176-180
26. Community Supported Agriculture, 181-185
Week 15 (Dec 6-):
15.1 [D]
• Callenbach, Ecotopia, 91-181 (selections)
36. Matt Klingle, “The Geography of Hope,” 262-270
<Final Project Due Friday of Finals Week by 3pm>
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