Our title: “Environmental Analysis.” Our task: to gather tools and skills that allow us to engage in specific, situated, reliable, relevant environmental analysis.
ENVS 220 is the methods course for the Environmental Studies major at Lewis & Clark College. This semester has been a cacophony of skills labs, projects, and proposals developing the foundations of “environmental analysis.” As I reflect on my academic growth and intellectual exploration in ENVS 220 and other courses, two themes emerge to characterize my journey: narratives of landscape history and the power of variety.
A great influence on my path forward in Environmental Studies has been Reiko Hillyer’s history class Constructing the American Landscape. This course has illuminated many connections between human history and the values and demographics reflected in built environments and “natural” landscapes. William Cronon appeared in several key places throughout the semester, fundamentally connecting the power of narrative to the perceptions of landscape. This relationship between literature and land is the crux of my area of interest. Additionally, the human and non-human aspects of built environments present fascinating dilemmas and decisions that we explored within the context of outdoor lighting in Portland, Oregon.
Although I find narrative to be the most compelling actor in any analysis, our projects and labs allowed me to deploy various other skills and tools to discover a wider network of relationships within any object or dilemma. In order to communicate the relevance of environmental analysis and persuade people of the importance of this work, technological literacy, visual elements, and reliable results are key to “good” critical environmental analysis. This is the main take-away from ENVS 220- the power of variety and interdisciplinary inquiry to reveal connections and patterns from the gritty details extrapolated to wider scales and significance.