After my first day of Environmental Theory I realized that there are some logistical similarities between this class and ENVS 220 but other than that, this was going to be an entirely different experience. I also have been doing a lot of reflecting on the last semester (which I maybe should have posted about…) and will be trying to implement some different strategies for the next semester.
My biggest new strategy is to create a few simple and easy goals for myself that will be an attempt at holding myself accountable for my progress in both the class and my concentration/major progress in general. My top three goals for the semester are: 1. Post at least once after each class section (aka minimum of two posts per week) 2. Finish readings and posts before dinner (an attempt for better time management and reprioritize ENVS work) 3. Go to office hours at least two times per month.
I think these are all great starting points to just stay focused and alert during the semester. The posts will be especially helpful because I think my current weakness in ENVS is centered around rhetoric and being able to express my ideas. This class in particular will be focusing a lot on rhetoric of theories and how it changes and shapes the use and understanding of theories.
In class today we broke down a bit of what environmental theory does mean or could mean. One of the great things about current environmental studies is that it is an interdisciplinary field, which when applied to theory, essentially combines theories and philosophies from all kinds of subjects to create a more encompassing circle of theory. During an exercise splitting theoretical and non-theoretical topics/things, I found it much more difficult to differentiate between the two than I first thought. Some notable categorizations that our class found were that qualitative topics, or the idea of “movement’s” were more theoretical, while quantitative topics and action/activism were non-theoretical. In a lot of cases the way in which something was categorized had a lot to do with the roles in which someone looked at the word or subject.
The exercise that we did made it really obvious that rhetoric was going to be a big thing for me this year. Just starting the categorization I had to come up with the words and concepts I was interested in categorizing and it was a lot hard than I first thought it would be.