(Thesis draft removed — see here for full first draft) My computer is running slow. I just closed about thirty tabs across both the Chrome windows I have open, a mere 21 remaining open. My desktop is cluttered with map mistakes, PDFs with only numbers as labels, with outdated apps like Microsoft Paint. Whenever my […]
Tourist, Local, Resident, Worker: The Perception and Representation of Place in Lived Experiences and Travel Narratives in Touristic Settings of the Rural American West
Background While much of the theory surrounding tourism is distinctly 20th century, tourism not entirely a modern or postmodern phenomenon. Today the word “tour” perhaps invokes a stuffy, rehearsed, and controlled travel experience, but tours also describe modes of travel such as pilgrimages, military assignments and excursions, and expeditions undertaken by the likes of Don […]
Reconciling the Colonial History of the Western United States through Environmental Literatures: The Application of Postcolonial and Ecocritical Theories to the Literature of the American West
Background The relationship between literature and concepts of nature is a far reaching one. From the hierarchical relationship Adam naming animals around him found in Genesis, the conceptions of the wilderness in Exodus (Cronon 1995), to the pastoral poetry of the English Renaissance that romanticizes rural life, concepts of nature have long been rendered in […]
Naming the Wilderness: Values and Histories of Toponyms of Wilderness Areas in the United States
Background Why do humans name? Humans assign names to nearly everything: people, professions, places, items, ideas. It is a fundamental act to name and we often take names and labels for granted. Theorists such as Jacques Derrida have spent countless hours delving into the politics, ethics, and nuances of language contained in the act of […]
Festival of Scholars
Last Friday, Lewis & Clark College held an annual conference called the Festival of Scholars. Instead of classes, the college hosts a collection of panels, art exhibitions, performances, poster sessions, and other displays of student produced research and work. I was fortunate enough to participate in two poster presentations for my Environmental Studies classes (330 […]