The process we went through to conceptualize, create, and carry out our praxis projects was a lot like our journey to the Doerner Fir in (almost) Douglas County — long, winding, riddled with trial and error, a bit frantic, but worth it in the end. Who knows, maybe Jim planned it that way all along […]
Environmental Theory
This class is an "advanced exploration of major theoretical assumptions underlying environmental studies, including the nature of environment, environmental knowledge (including role of sciences and humanities), and environmental problems and solutions." We discussed major theoretical realms such as knowledge, politics, ethics, and reality, applied them to a situated context by creating and carrying out a praxis project, and developed our own environmental theories.
Grounding Experiences in Theory
Our class discussion on Tuesday about potential praxis projects made me realize how much we’ve learned throughout the semester. I must admit it wasn’t an easy journey getting through all of the readings that we did, but now that I have some distance from them and a way to ground them in a real world […]
Science and Values: A Paradox?
Based off of our experiences this past weekend in Douglas County (read about our trip here), I came up with a potential idea for a praxis project. There were so many interesting options to explore, but I wanted to make sure the project I chose was doable within the timeframe we were allotted (a little […]
Praxis in Action: Douglas County Field Trip Reflections
The long anticipated field trip to Douglas County finally happened! We were blessed with incredible weather while we were there, and got to experience a variety of aspects of Douglas County. It was a lot of fun to have this experience with Jim and the students of ENVS 350, and based off of the initial […]
Chapter Three: Praxis Projects
In our metaphorical book of ENVS 350, we have now begun Chapter Three. Chapter One was about environmental theory and Big Words, Chapter two was our exploration of reality, knowledge, ethics, and politics, and now in Chapter Three we have the opportunity to apply our studies to the real world. Over spring break, we did […]
Searching for Santa
I didn’t believe in utopias until recently. Utopias were like Santa Claus — a wonderful, make-believe idea that would be so nice if it were true, but the details of its realization were simply unachievable. Like Proctor and Berry discuss in their article, “utopias lie in the eyes of the utopian” and therefore they are […]