Pamplin Society of Fellows

Talk about a hectic (yet wonderful) spring semester! From my 18-credit course load to the Environmental Affairs Symposium to preparation for a semester abroad in India next spring, this semester has presented me with a vast amount of challenging and inspiring experiences.

I am currently taking a fascinating Environmental Studies topics course called Ecotopia/Ecopocalypse with a post-doctoral fellow from UCSB named Dr. Evan Berry. Evan and my Environmental Studies core professor, Jim Proctor, did a research project called “Ecotopia Revisited” last summer regarding the connections between utopias/dystopias and environmental attitudes. Evan’s class, Ecotopia/Ecopocalypse, has mainly been a seminar, where we spend most of our time discussing elements within the works of utopian/dystopian literature and their implications in modern day society. This class has acted as an incredible resource for me during the planning of my Environmental Studies concentration because it is not just about literature, but about how literature can help us to make sense of the world we live in. Ecotopia/Ecopocalypse has helped me particularly to organize my interests in the social and ethical elements of environmental behavior. Early in March, I officially proposed my Environmental Studies concentration on “Community, Individuals and the Connected Environment,” in which I hope to explore both the theoretical and practical relationships between community life and the individual member’s felt connections to their environment at various temporal and spatial scales. It is quite amazing to see how my ENVS peers have synthesized their ideas and passions into these major concentrations, I definitely recommend looking at our proposal page if you are ever in the need of inspiration.

Meeting the wonderful Dr. Vandana Shiva, founder of the Navdanya Farm. (Rosanne and I on the right).

This semester, my good friend Rosanne Wielemaker and I have also been planning an independent study project to do while we’re in India next fall. We’re interested in studying the various factors that influence municipal waste management in the cities of Delhi, Vrindavan and Varanasi. During the process of drafting our independent study proposal, we even had the chance to meet the influential ecofeminist and environmental activist, Dr. Vandana Shiva who helped to inspire us towards this project.

Rosie(anne) and I have also been working hard with our fellow ENVS major Molly Elder on organizing next fall’s Environmental Affairs Symposium. Coincidentally, all three of us will be overseas next fall (Molly will be in China) and will have to experience our Symposium handiwork via internet podcasts. The Symposium theme next year is “Re-Imagining the Good Life” and will focus what the re-imagining the good life means in thinking about the environmental crisies of today. The official blurbs that we have been working and information related to the Symposium are on the ENVS website, but will be updated within the next few weeks. I am especially excited about this Symposium topic because I feel that our world is in dire need of inspiration and hope in order to move towards effective environmental action.

Although this semester has deprived me of much sleep and free time, I am very excited for my busy schedule this summer. Before officially taking off to Delhi on August 31st, I will have the honor of working with Dr. Daena Goldsmith and Dr. Deborah Heath on their “Local/Global Networks: Wine & Foie Gras” project for 10 weeks as a Mellon Research assistant. In addition to researching wine and foie gras networks, I will also (hopefully) be making up for my lack of speaking French this semester and for that I am terribly glad!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 3:08 am and is filed under Fellows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.