1) I will find, read, and document between 8 and 12 sources (books or scholarly articles) relating to the wilderness idea and wilderness tourism in the United States. I will compile these in an annotated bibliography and publish reviews on my DS site of at least 3 sources which demonstrate how each source helps define my project ideas.
Update: I have documented 21 sources in an annotated bibliography. These range from histories of tourism in the American West, theories about tourism worldwide, literary theories regarding ecocriticism. Most of what I have found are history textbooks which I deem a relevant because they provide a context from which to track change and compare across time. I also am interested in exploring the meta-historicism of wilderness areas: that being the function of a landscape to preserve a moment or a person in history and the symbolism and values behind that. For this I turn to studies in historical and cultural preservation. While the ecocriticism piece of my bibliography might not seem to fit, my concentration is connected to my second major of English and ecocriticism is a convenient and rich overlap between these two fields. I am taking a literary theory class next fall, in conjunction with my ENVS capstone preparation and my English seminar and I hope to develop a literary criticism component from that course.
2) Because The Oyster War engages directly with my interests and research questions, I will research reviews of the book to gauge its reception. I will compile my reader responses and this outside research into a 1-2 part review on my DS site.
Update: I have written a post about my negative response to Summer Brennan’s The Oyster War critiquing her treatment of the people she writes about, her use of academic sources, and her claim that her book is true, neutral, and comprehensive.
3) I will research survey methods and draft a survey to investigate attitudes towards wilderness in various individuals in and around wilderness areas. I will consult with Savannah Wohsltattar to learn from her experience with SOAN quantitative methods. I will also consult with Dr. Maryann Bylander to learn from her expertise with quantitative methods.
4) To explore the available data, I will investigate GIS data sets of wilderness areas in central Idaho (Sawtooth, River of No Return, Owyhee, Boulder-White Cloud, and others) for data on geologic history and tourism.
Update: Because of changes in my direction to less of focus on this specific location, I have decided that this step is unnecessary in moving toward an eventual thesis (at least at this stage where my situated contexts are fluid).
Update: 5) I will research and document three other situated contexts of similar topics (wilderness areas in the American West) and explore these as different frameworks for my interest. I will come up with framing questions inspired by each of these situated contexts. See my (lengthy) post.