Tasting the Berries: Deep Ecology and Experiential Education

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Tasting the Berries: Deep Ecology and Experiential Education Tasting the Berries: Deep Ecology and Experiential Education byBert Horwood Gary Snyder (1977) dedicates his little book, The attempts to "taste the berries and greet the bluejays" by Old Ways, to Alan Watts with the remarkable words: examining the synergy when ideas from deep ecology and experiential education are brought together. I will tasting the berries compare the two movements and offer some guiding greeting the bluejays principles which will enable the people in any pro­ learning and loving the whole terrain gram to learn and love "the whole terrain." Deep ecology and experiential education have This poem is, at the very least, an account of education much in common. Both are products of the late twenti­ at its simplest and best. Direct experience is central. eth century. Both take the form of a modern rediscov­ The complete world, including one's self, is the arena. ery and recreation of ancient ideals gradually lost in Learning and loving are linked together with a kind of the materialism and alienation of Western culture. The easy light heartedness. If such thinking and feeling two movements have experienced an increasingly were to be taken seriously (but not too seriously), what powerful impact from the work of women. Both have sort of education might uncomfortable relations result? with their respective One of the problems The special excitement in linking mainstreams; they are inherent in experiential deep ecology with experiential education is somewhat radical and education is that its to see what happens when the values ofone touched with a distinctly modalities are morally disreputable air. flexible. They have no are attached to the instructional These similarities clear intrinsic moral methods ofthe other. spring from the fact that value. This argument has both movements present been developed else- a critical shift in central where (Horwood and Raffan, 1988a) and here I'll only values. In the case of deep ecology, it parts from main­ assert the claim that an adventure event (for example) stream thought by shifting the centre of its concern like a ropes course, could as easily train powerful ter­ from human beings to the biosphere. In big words, it rorist teams, as it trains high performance management moves from anthropocentrism to biocentrism. Deep teams or promotes healing in a wounded personality. ecology also goes beyond science as the best, or only, The special excitement in linking deep ecology with way of knowing. Thought is taken to include feelings experiential education is to see what happens when and spirituality, the entire range of mentality. the values of one are attached to the instructional Experiential education, likewise, shifts concern from methods of the other. what teachers can teach from their experiences to what Joseph Meeker (1980) says that tragedies end in the students could learn from their experiences; in funerals but comedies end in weddings. The path of short, a shift in the centre of concern from teacher to survival with joy is through the comic. This article student. Like deep ecology, experiential education tries to see things whole. Just as the experiential education movement seeks Bert Horwood tries to taste the berries and greet the to eliminate those discriminations which exclude peo­ bluejays while teaching and learning in the Faculty of ple from its processes, so the deep ecology movement Education at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, seeks to remove discriminations which would put one Canada, K7L 3N6. species of life above another in terms of value and Volume 14, No.3 / November 1991 23 Downloaded from jee.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO on January 19, 2016 if we do not undergo such a transformation. What would experiential programs look like if they were to include the values of deep ecology? There are such programs already in exis­ tence. Dolores LaChapelle describes one. The Institute for Earth Education programs such as Sunship Earth and ._.~ ~Q"~_"" ."":.~~=~':-f"::-O"""' •.,'.t..; ..*, .. Earthkeepers (Van Matre, _~,""~'>"'~"'M._ .', ....,....:.;. 1990) are other examples. .........,- Rather than provide a specific I:.' ;',.~:~:;;;.{ ':~ program description here, I ',,..~:r,/, : ..,..~.. will give a set of general guid­ ing principles which any such program must have. It is important to note that I mean to include all forms of experi- Bert Horwood ential education including importance. Respect is a key attitude. Henley (1989, adventure, therapy, work experience, and so on, 1991) shows how students, living in primitive condi­ because the synergy is general. tions with experienced elders, gain respect for their I have chosen five principles that are convenient knowledge. That respect for the person, in turn, gener­ and useful, but I do not claim they are absolute. The ates respect for the place and important general learn­ many connections among them invite other patterns of ing results. organization. The principles are: place, wholeness, There are numerous accounts of deep ecology as a identity, integrity and wildness. system of thought and as a way of life. The best of Place includes both knowledge and feeling about them are cited by Dolores LaChapelle (1991). Her arti­ one's place, in this case the program site. Whatever the cle is an excellent primer, well suited for experiential educators. The deep ecology literature is strong in its philo­ The methodological implications sophical development. Its ends and values are clearly ofdeep ecology are highly compatible and powerfully stated. It lacks a matching educational framework for the transmission and inculcation of with experiential methods and the value those values. Conversely, experiential education pos­ implications ofexperiential education sesses powerful instructional methods which can be are close to the values ofdeep bent to a variety of ends. Most experiential education has served progressive social purposes but its literature ecology, although more restricted to and practice reveals a variable and relatively undevel­ the human species. oped moral framework. The methodological implications of deep ecology are highly compatible with experiential methods and special goals of the program, participants should know the value implications of experiential education are something about the other inhabitants of the place, close to the values of deep ecology, although more where they come from and go to. What plants and ani­ restricted to the human species. The logical end for mals are there? How is the land formed? Where is the progressive value-based experiential education is the north star? the sunrise? Where does the drinking water adoption of deep ecology values. Together, there come from and where does it go after it has been would emerge a more powerful way to influence the drunk? Similar questions apply to the food, shelter and transformation of the world toward some set of com­ materials in use. prehensive, biospherically benign principles. Dolores LaChapelle (1991) speaks of the use she There are two reasons for believing that such a and Rick Medrick make of the concept of "affor­ transformation is critically needed. First the principles dances." Self-propelled expeditions in remote country are right because they include virtues such as respect, invariably teach people that the terrain affords people wholeness, justice, and community among others. certain opportunities and denies others. For example, Second, the world, and our place in it, will not survive strong head-winds make paddling impossible on an 24 The Journal of Experiential Education Downloaded from jee.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO on January 19, 2016 arctic lake and the open tundra offers no shelter for would be matched by times of solitude and indepen­ pitching tents. But a short distance away there is a dence. Planning would be larded with spontaneity. grove of shin-high willow. Here travellers are afforded The principle of identity is an antidote for the shelter and a place to rest. They gratefully recline alienation which most of us carry to some degree. The under the willows among musk-ox scat and learn to malaise of our dominant Western culture is alienation see the sky through a different screen. from self, society and our fellow creatures. Arne Naess Experiences like this teach participants that the (1985) provides a full development of the concept of world affords people opportunities to climb, to sleep, identification in deep ecology. When persons move to eat. When participants look for what the place from alienation to identity they begin to know them­ affords, and use the affordances, they live and work in selves and to recognize that they share a common iden­ the place harmoniously. They force things less. Place tity with other beings, human and non-human. It is the also becomes more personified and less objectified. We difference between a person trying to protect a wild become a little like Schultz's cartoon character, Sally river from a dam and feeling that one is the wild river Brown, who knows that her school building is a person protecting itself. This is an advanced stage of identifi­ and talks to it regularly. cation known to be achieved by aboriginal people but Such knowledge should promote feelings of reached in the present Western culture by only a few. belonging to the place, of experiencing its hospitality, There was a country woman driving into town first as a guest and later as a full member of the house­ who noticed a neighbor holding a small pig up into an hold in that place. To feel like a guest leads to different apple tree to reach the apples. On her late return, he behaviour than to feel like an r---------------------------------, invader. To feel owned by the place has very different conse- quences than to feel like an owner. For example, travellers who feel like guests feel less guilt for being in the place. They also take care due to motives of profound gratitude and respect rather than from duty, which is more likely to fail.
Recommended publications
  • Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature
    University of Nevada, Reno Organizing Fictions: Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Kyle Bladow Dr. Cheryll Glotfelty/Dissertation Advisor May, 2015 © by Kyle Bladow 2015 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the dissertation prepared under our supervision by KYLE BLADOW Entitled Organizing Fictions: Material Ecocriticism, Environmental Justice, and American Indian Literature be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Cheryll Glotfelty, PhD, Advisor Michael Branch, PhD, Committee Member Kathleen Boardman, PhD, Committee Member Greta de Jong, PhD, Committee Member Leah Wilds, PhD, Graduate School Representative David W. Zeh, PhD, Dean, Graduate School May, 2015 i Abstract This dissertation considers how environmental humanities, in dialogue with Native studies, can enhance scholarship concerned with environmental justice. Maintaining a critical interest in how materiality—as conceived within material ecocriticism and American Indian relational ontologies—plays into these discourses, the dissertation examines representations of land, water, and community in late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century American Indian literature, in order to inform a deeper understanding of contemporary environmental and indigenous movements. Chapter one introduces the project’s theoretical framework and diffractive methodology. The following three chapters, grouped under the presiding images of land, water, and community, examine a range of cultural and literary texts involving environmental justice organizing and activism. Chapter two argues for the liveliness of borders and demarcations of place in the reservation landscapes of novels by Louise Erdrich and Winona LaDuke.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Dr. Robin Kimmerer Biography Dr. Kimmerer Is a Mother, Plant
    Dr. Robin Kimmerer Biography Dr. Kimmerer is a mother, plant ecologist, writer and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. She serves as the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. Her research interests include the role of traditional ecological knowledge in ecological restoration and the ecology of mosses. In collaboration with tribal partners, she and her students have an active research program in the ecology and restoration of plants of cultural significance to Native people. She is active in efforts to broaden access to environmental science education for Native students, and to create new models for integration of indigenous philosophy and scientific tools on behalf of land and culture. She is engaged in programs which introduce the benefits of traditional ecological knowledge to the scientific community, in a way that respects and protects indigenous knowledge. Dr. Kimmerer has taught courses in botany, ecology, ethnobotany, indigenous environmental issues as well as a seminar in application of traditional ecological knowledge to conservation. She is the co-founder and past president of the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section of the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Kimmerer serves as a Senior Fellow for the Center for Nature and Humans. Of European and Anishinaabe ancestry, Robin is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. 1 As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephanie Kaza
    STEPHANIE KAZA Environmental Program (802) 656-0172 wk 153 S. Prospect St. (802) 656-8015 fax University of Vermont (802) 651-9345 hm Burlington, VT 05401 [email protected] CURRENT Director, Environmental Program Professor, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (teaching appointment 100% with the Environmental Program) University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont EDUCATION M. Div., Starr King School of Ministry, 1991 Ph.D. Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1979 M.A. Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1970 Secondary Life Teaching Credential, 1970 B.A. Biology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, 1968 TEACHING Professor, University of Vermont, May 2005 to present Associate Professor, University of Vermont, May 1997-April 2005 Assistant Professor, University of Vermont, September 1991-April 1997 Teach required and elective courses through the Environmental Program, serving ~500 majors. Assigned 60-70 undergraduate advisees; advise 15-20 senior capstones per year. Currently supervising three PhD students and two M.S. students. Courses taught include: Core Courses Topical Courses Introduction to Environmental Studies Unlearning Consumerism International Environmental Studies Ecofeminism Intermediate Environmental Studies Religion and Ecology Senior Thesis/Project Buddhism and Ecology Race and Culture in Natural Resources American Nature Philosophers Environmental Thought and Culture Advisor to student-taught classes: Perspectives in Ecophilosophy Environmental Justice High Tech Trash Ecopsychology Radical Environmentalism Campus Ecology Nature Writing Biotechnology & Democracy Environmental Justice Cultivating Holistic Lifestyles Women, Health, and Environment Building Peace Environmental Literature, Arts, Media Awards George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, University of Vermont, 2011. UVM fellowship to attend the year-long seminar, Higher Education Resource Services for women in academic careers, Wellesley College, 2006-2007.
    [Show full text]
  • To Search and Search Again: on the Practice of Environmental Research
    Volume Five 1996/1997 To Search and Search Most decent research emanates from Again: On the Practice the same source as good love and of Environmental good art: passion for the process. Research Thomas Lowe Fleischner awn has not yet arrived; I the other from the right. At the scurry in the darkness along point where they meet, love flashes D the edge of a large em- forth in a salty, feathery, floating bayment in Northern Puget Sound. A tumble that lasts but a few seconds. large pack on my back holds a variety Then, shaking water from their multi- of field biology tools: standard ones, colored heads, they part pathways, dive such as notebooks and a spotting scope, below the surface, and eventually disappear and odd ones, like a video camera and tripod. from view. The harlequins' reward is love; Binoculars, a stopwatch, and a light meter encircle my mine is to gather information. neck. I am not far from town, yet at this hour no one else strolls the shoreline. Armed and dangerous, I am ready to record and measure anything that moves. Like any good warrior, I focus on but a single quarry: the harlequin duck, Another time and place. I am deep within the sandstone Histrionicus histrionicus. Although beauty radiates spec- layer cake of Cedar Mesa on the Colorado Plateau. I have tacularly from this sea duck, few scientists have ever studied traveled several days with a group of students as we have it. Little is known about basic elements of its natural history. attempted to grasp a few of the many lessons offered by this I am here this dawn to capture on film its habit of reappear- land of red stone, blue sky, and stunning silence.
    [Show full text]
  • THE EMERGENCE of BUDDHIST AMERICAN LITERATURE SUNY Series in Buddhism and American Culture
    THE EMERGENCE OF BUDDHIST AMERICAN LITERATURE SUNY series in Buddhism and American Culture John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff, editors The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature EDITED BY JOHN WHALEN-BRIDGE GARY STORHOFF Foreword by Maxine Hong Kingston and Afterword by Charles Johnson Cover art image of stack of books © Monika3stepsahead/Dreamstime.com Cover art image of Buddha © maodesign/istockphoto Published by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS ALBANY © 2009 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval systemor transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The emergence of Buddhist American literature / edited by John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff ; foreword by Maxine Hong Kingston ; afterword by Charles Johnson. p. cm. — (Suny series in Buddhism and American culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-2653-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. American literature—Buddhist authors—History and criticism. 2. American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 3. American literature—Buddhist influences. 4. Buddhism in literature. 5. Buddhism and literature—United States. I. Whalen-Bridge, John, 1961– II. Storhoff, Gary, 1947– PS153.B83E44 2009 810.9’382943—dc22 2008034847 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 John Whalen-Bridge would like to dedicate his work on The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature to his two sons, Thomas and William.
    [Show full text]
  • Indigenous Thought, Relational Ontology, and the Politics of Nature; Or, If Only Nietzsche Could Meet a Yachaj
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 4-30-2014 12:00 AM Thinking Across Worlds: Indigenous Thought, Relational Ontology, and the Politics of Nature; Or, If Only Nietzsche Could Meet A Yachaj Jarrad Reddekop The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Regna Darnell The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Jarrad Reddekop 2014 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Reddekop, Jarrad, "Thinking Across Worlds: Indigenous Thought, Relational Ontology, and the Politics of Nature; Or, If Only Nietzsche Could Meet A Yachaj" (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2082. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2082 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thinking Across Worlds: Indigenous Thought, Relational Ontology, And The Politics Of Nature Or, If Only Nietzsche Could Meet A Yachaj A Monograph By Jarrad Reddekop Graduate Program in Theory & Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Western University London, Ontario, Canada © Jarrad Reddekop, 2014 Abstract This study undertakes a cultural critique of dominant, modern relationships to “nature” through a cross-cultural philosophical engagement with certain Indigenous American traditions of thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae ALISON HAWTHORNE DEMING
    Curriculum Vitae ALISON HAWTHORNE DEMING www.alisonhawthornedeming.com CHRONOLOGY OF EMPLOYMENT: 2017-present Regents Professor, Creative Writing Program, Department of English University Arizona 2014-2019 Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in Environment and Social Justice, University of Arizona 2012-2014 Director, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, University of Arizona 2003-2017 Professor, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, University of Arizona 2009-2010 Acting Head, Department of English, University of Arizona 2007 Acting Director, Creative Writing Program, University of Arizona, spring semester 1998-2003 Associate Professor, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, University of Arizona 1990-2000/ Director, University of Arizona Poetry Center 2001-2002 1997 Distinguished Visiting Writer, University of Hawai’i, Mānoa, HI, fall semester 1988-90 Coordinator, Fellowship Program, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA 1983-87 Instructor, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME 1984-85 Poetry Fellow, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA CHRONOLOGY OF EDUCATION: 1987-88 Wallace Stegner Fellow: Stanford University 1983 M.F.A. in Writing, Vermont College of Fine Arts Thesis: Signs of Conviction, a poetry collection; thesis director, Mark Doty Critical Paper: “The Engaging Mask: A Study of Self and Other in Six Contemporary Poets” Undergraduate study at Trinity College, Brown University, Harvard University Extension, and Goddard College. BOOKS: The Excavations, poems, under review at Penguin, which published my last three poetry books A Woven World: On Fashion, Fishermen and the Sardine Dress, nonfiction, Counterpoint Press, forthcoming August 2021 (supported by a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation) Stairway to Heaven, poetry, NY: Penguin, 2016, 101 pages Death Valley: Painted Light, photographs by Stephen Strom and poems by Alison Hawthorne Deming, Santa Fe: George F.
    [Show full text]
  • ASLE Fall 04.Indd
    VOL. 16, NO. 2 FALL 2004 A Biannual ASLEPublication of the Association for the Study News of Literature and Environment PRESIDENT ’ S COLUMN ASLE Leadership Holds Retreat, Approves Managing Director Position, and Moves Forward with 2005 Conference Plans In Linnaeus’s day it was common to refer to “the floral cal- endar,” as the turning year was accompanied by its seasonal succession of wildflowers. Here in New England, the end of August always means the blossoming of goldenrod, Joe- Pye weed, and chicory along our highways, of orange and yellow jewelweed in the wet ground and at the woods’ edge. At this vivid time the days remain generally warm but the crickets’ swelling chorus reminds everyone that summer really is drawing to a close. Whatever the signs of the season may be in the diverse landscapes where ASLE members live and work around the world, this is also often the cusp of a new academic year. Between the writing of this column and the actual publication of this Newsletter through Karla During the ASLE officers’ retreat in May, current president John Elder Armbruster’s creative efforts, fall classes will have begun for symbolically passes the leadership of ASLE to Allison Wallace, who will many of us. We will be experiencing the excitement that take over as ASLE’s president in 2005. comes with the arrival of students, the renewal of conversa- tion among colleagues, and the opportunity to approach our various European affiliates. There’s clearly an appetite for classes in fresh ways. the conversations that enhance our research and help us to maintain a larger perspective on our local institutions.
    [Show full text]
  • Redefining Humanity in Science Fiction: the Alien from an Ecofeminist Perspective
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Biblioteca Digital de la Universidad de Alcalá REDEFINING HUMANITY IN SCIENCE FICTION: THE ALIEN FROM AN ECOFEMINIST PERSPECTIVE By Irene Sanz Alonso Under the supervision of Dr. Carmen Flys Junquera Instituto Franklin – Universidad de Alcalá 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS After all these five years, I have come to see the writing of this dissertation as some sort of intergalactic journey and this book as a spaceship arriving at its final destination. As any journey across the universe, my research started with fear and doubts, but it finally ended in success thanks to all those people who supported me along the way. Continuing with the intergalactic metaphor, I would like to thank the sponsors and patrons that made this adventure possible by providing the spaceship and the fuel for my journey. This dissertation would not have been possible without the grant I was awarded by the Autonomous Region of Madrid in 2007, which enabled me to focus on my research for four years as a researcher at the University of Alcalá. I also want to highlight the support of the Franklin Institute of the University of Alcalá, whose resources were of great help, and whose grant Eleanor Roosevelt made the binding of this dissertation possible. I am also indebted to the whole team of “engineers” whose knowledge helped me with the doubts that appeared throughout my journey. The arrival to my destination would not have been so successful without the support from the members of the research group GIECO, who are not only colleagues but good friends.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephanie Kaza
    STEPHANIE KAZA Environmental Program (802) 656-0172 wk 153 S. Prospect St. (802) 656-8015 fax University of Vermont (802) 651-9345 hm Burlington, VT 05401 [email protected] CURRENT Professor, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (teaching appointment with the Environmental Program) University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont EDUCATION M. Div., Starr King School of Ministry, 1991 Ph.D. Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1979 M.A. Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1970 Secondary Life Teaching Credential, 1970 B.A. Biology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, 1968 Sunset High School, Portland, Oregon, 1964 TEACHING Professor, Unversity of Vermont, May 2005 to present Associate Professor, University of Vermont, May 1997-April 2005 Assistant Professor, University of Vermont, September 1991-April 1997 Teach required and elective courses for students from all four colleges through the Environmental Program serving 250 majors with seven full-time faculty. Assigned 40 undergraduate advisees; advise and review 10-15 senior theses per year. Work with 2-3 graduate students per year. Courses taught include: Core Courses for Major Elective Courses Introduction to Environmental Studies Unlearning Consumerism International Environmental Studies Ecofeminism Intermediate Environmental Studies Religion and Ecology Senior Thesis/Project Buddhism and Ecology Race and Culture in Natural Resources American Nature Philosophers Perspectives in Ecophilosophy Advisor to student-taught classes: Environmental Justice Living Self-Sufficiently Radical Environmentalism Environmental Justice Nature Writing Biotechnology & Democracy Feminist Ethics and the Environment Ecopsychology Environmental Communication Cultivating Holistic Lifestyles Special Topics Book Seminars Awards University of Vermont Senior Class Council award for student contributions, 2005. Spirit and Nature award for environmental leadership, Middlebury, Vermont, 2003.
    [Show full text]
  • A Theology of Disgust
    A Theology Of Disgust Submitted by Doreen Patricia Freeman to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology in February 2010. This thesis/dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and no quotation from the thesis/dissertation may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis/dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and that no material is included for which a degree has previously been conferred upon me. 1 ABSTRACT A Theology Of Disgust. ‘A Theology of Disgust’ is a personal journey through the bodily experience of physical impairment and the social oppressions of sexism and disabilism. This journey has highlighted the extraordinary power of the emotion of disgust to distort relations throughout the natural order. Utilising the phenomenological approach of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the theological critique and insights of feminist theologies as well as the resources of contextual theological reflection, a new appreciation of the human body and body of the earth is sought by engaging more viscerally with the fears (and hopes) of flesh which have troubled the Christian tradition. It is claimed that the effects of human disgust have compromised Christianity’s life giving message of divine love and God given power of relationality throughout creation. It argues for a deeper consciousness of the need for pyschic and social change in our human relationships, with each other and with the whole earth, believing this can be achieved through renewed ecomystical liturgy in the church, labelling and uncovering paralyzing fears so that the church could be seen as a beacon of hope and knowledge for all sentient life.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Alesia Maltz, Ph.D. Antioch New England Graduate
    Curriculum Vitae Alesia Maltz, Ph.D. Antioch New England Graduate School P.O. Box 63 40 Avon Street Colebrook, CT 06021 Keene, New Hampshire 03431 860-738-7460 603-283-2342 [email protected] Current Research Interests The History of Nutrition, especially Vitamin D The Relationship between Nutrition and Environment Environmental History Cultural and Public Health Implications of Climate Change in Innu and Inuit Communities in Labrador Community Capacity-building through History Public Health and Environmental Policy Traditional Ecological Knowledge Renewing Intergeneration Knowledge in Agriculture Environmental Arts and Design Education Ph.D., 1989, University of Illinois History Department M.A., 1981, University of Illinois History Department, and Program in the Science, Technology, and Society B.A., 1978, Hampshire College, major in evolutionary theory and vertebrate paleontology Employment Director, Interdisciplinary Master of Arts, Antioch University, 2013-present Environmental Studies Doctoral Program Acting Director, 2012-2013 Core Faculty Member, Department of Environmental Studies, Antioch New England Graduate School, 1996-present Faculty Member in History, College of the Atlantic, 1988-1996 Associate Dean, College of the Atlantic, 1992-1996 Adjunct Faculty Member, Sitting Bull Tribal College, 2002-2004 1 Adjunct Faculty Member, Fort Berthold Tribal College, 1998-2000 Adjunct Faculty Member, Tunxis Community College, 2002 Research Associate, Harvard University, School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management 1984-1988 Research Associate, Harvard University, School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics, 1984-1988 Technical Information Specialist and Junior Historian, US Geological Survey, 1978-1980 Research Assistant, University of Illinois, Departments of Chemistry, Geology, and History1981-1984 Publications Sunshine and Supplements: Food, Environment and the History of Vitamin D.
    [Show full text]