Office Hours: Winter 2024:

Week 1 to Week 10: Mondays in my office, 205 PLC, from 9-12 and 1-3;  Tuesdays 3-5 on Zoom   (email for appointment and  zoom link). You can stop by in-person office hours or email to reserve a half hour meeting.  If you are sick, please do not come to office hours in person; email me and we can zoom. Note: Some office hours may be cancelled due to graduate exams and meetings. Just email to check. 

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SPRING 2024:

Mondays: 2:00-4:50

Graduate Seminar: ENG 615: Theory: Multispecies Anthropocene 

Although the term “Anthropocene” has been critiqued and recast, the central problematic of how to conceive of the scale of impact that (Western/colonial/capitalist) Humans have had on the planet remains an environmental, ethical, and political question. While “the anthropocene” is often depicted both visually and theoretically in colossal and abstract modes, this seminar veers toward more immediate and tangible problematics that arise when considering the Anthropocene from the framework of multispecies relations as well as the perspectives, struggles, agencies, and life worlds of particular species. How do particular animals, species, taxa and ecosystems navigate and respond to this profoundly altered planet? It will also explore how racial and colonial structures as well as queer/trans subject positions affect the constitution of species in the Anthropocene, and introduce Indigenous theories of multispecies relations. Topics will include extinction, rewilding, biopolitics, race, Indigeneity, queer and trans animalities, science and technology studies, epistemologies of species perspectives and cross-species speculations. Much of the reading will be in the form of theoretical/cultural studies articles and chapters, but the course will also include science, art, activist web sites, digital media (What is Missing? + Feral Atlas), popular science writing (Eager Beaver), an experimental cross over text (Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals), and an Indigenous experimental novel that we will read as theory (Noompiming: The Cure for White Ladies).

 

Seminar time will primarily consist of discussion, but may also include impromptu lectures by the professor, brief outdoor forays (loupes provided), and presentations by former U of Oregon graduate students and/or current faculty, depending on availability.  The penultimate class period will consist of a workshop on “pitches” for crossover digital publications such as Edge Effects or Orion Magazine; an abstract for a conference paper or conference panel; the introduction of a grant proposal; a proposal for funding for an event or exhibit; OR a proposal for a social media series or activist event.  Assignments: 1) Short weekly response papers; 2) short pitch, introduction or abstract for the workshop; 3) seminar paper or digital/public/creative project, and a presentation of that paper or project; 4) informed, active participation.

 

PAST TEACHING

Fall 2023: English 690: Introduction to Graduate Studies (core course for English grad students) 

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Fall 2022: English 690: Introduction to Graduate Studies

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Spring 2022: English 607: Graduate Seminar: Posthumanism and Indigenous Thought

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ENVS 410 (30929): Ocean Conservation in the Arts and Sciences

Many threats to ocean ecologies and marine life are distant, complex, and difficult to imagine. So how can literature, visual art, and other media portray the threats to ocean ecologies and possible solutions in accurate and compelling ways? What is the relation between science and the arts in ocean conservation movements? This class will begin with an introduction to marine biology, then outline some of the key threats to ocean ecologies, along with frameworks for ocean conservation, including those of indigenous marine conservation or (TEK). The second half of the class will focus on ocean conservation in literature, art, film and visual media, analyzing representations of the science, ecological visions, ethical and political implications, and the ability of literature and visual arts to capture, portray, convince, and inspire. Readings include two books, Philip V. Mladenov, Marine Biology: A Very Short Introduction, Nancy Lord’s short novel, ph; and a selection of articles, essays, poems, theory, and science writing, along with art, video, and film.

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ENVS 510 (30947): Ocean Conservation in the Arts and Sciences (see ENVS 410 above)

[Graduate students in ENVS 410/510 will attend classes with undergraduates but will have one or two separate additional meetings, do a bit more reading and longer assignments.]

 

Winter 2022

English 419/519: Contemporary Literary Theory: Animal Studies/Plant Studies 

Beginning with and featuring the U of O Common Reading, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer and concluding with Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ experimental work Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals, this class will ask what it means to write about plants and animals, to embark on speculative forays about their perspectives, to place other species at the center of our stories, to learn from them, to creatively engage with scientific knowledge about them, and to expand the human scope of ethical consideration to include them. We will read and discuss literary criticism and theory in animal and plant studies, such as that by Jakob Johann von Uexküll, Michael Marder, Luce Irigaray, and Donna J. Haraway, along with some poetry and short stories. The final project will bring the theoretical perspectives to one specific plant or animal of the student’s choice, will include a creative option. Depending on the scheduling, the class may attend an event with Robin Wall Kimmerer. [Graduate students in the class will write a longer final project, along with a shorter version for the blog.] Please purchase the two books, early, because of supply chain issues! Also, graduate students will need to read and buy Michael Marder and Luce Irigaray, Through Vegetal Being.

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Fall 2021

English 230: Intro to Environmental Literature

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Spring 2021:

ENG 392: American Novel

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ENVS 633: Environmental Studies Thesis Development. Mondays 2:15-3:45

"Interdisciplinary readings in environmental studies focused on topics chosen by each student in consultation with instructor. Preparation for presentations at the Joint Campus Conference."

 

Fall 2020                      

ENG 469/569:    Literature and the Environment: Ocean Life in Literature, Film, and Theory

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Spring 2020

ENG 615:  Advanced Study in Lit Theory: Environmental Theory

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ENGL 407: Seminar: Environmental Theories

 

Winter 2020

English 230: Intro to Environmental Literature