Wk 10.1 – Eco-defense: debate common ground, Jensen’s Forget Shorter Showers

1. Debate across the curriculum: Prof. Darrin Hicks, Eco-defense deliberation handout due at end of class
2. Quiz 11: Jensen’s Forget Shorter Showers
3. Due before class: Site Journal #5
4. HW for W 11/11
   1. Read Weisman’s Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 for quiz 12

Wk 9.2: Debate – Eco-defense

Debate – Eco-defense, part of Free Expression at DU

Moderator: Prof. Darrin Hicks

Debate Guide

Due in Canvas before class: Debate brief (approximately 300-325 words). During the debate, be prepared to present your debate brief (no computers) and to ask one question. Practice your presentation and use your note card.

Wk 9.1 Ecodefense videos, research

• Quiz on Kingsolver’s Reconstructing Our Desires and Eco-defense videos
• Earth First! documentary (see 0-11:30 mins) with Edward Abbey speaking at the beginning.
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Academy Awards nominated documentary, see 26:16 to 47:30; and 49:34 – 55
• Whale Wars (60 Minutes Australia) (length: 14 mins)
• Debate preparation: group assignment (20 points)

Week 8.2 – Eco-defense – Abbey, Williams

(photo: Divest DU banner hanging from Sie Complex, Feb. 2020)

• University Writing Center
• Quiz – Abbey “Eco-defense” and Williams’ “Clan of One Breasted Women”
• Debate Across the Curriculum: Prof. Darrin Hicks
• Debate Guide: Topic, Groups, Schedule and Work
• Pre-Debate: Survey
• HW for M 11/2: Read: Kingsolver’s Reconstructing Our Desires
• Watch videos as background on eco-defense and eco-terrorism: Youtube videos
  • If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Academy Awards nominated documentary, see 26:16 to 47:30; and 49:34 – 55
  • Earth First! documentary (see 0-11:30 mins)
  • Whale Wars (60 Minutes Australia) (length: 14 mins)

Wk 7.2 + 8.1- Mentoring meetings; HWPL Dashboard

Mentoring and advising for Winter 2027 with Brad Benz

See appointment schedule.

Class meets at Illegal Pete’s on W 10/21. No class on M 10/26 for one-to-one mentoring meetings.

WK 7.1 – Designing Your Life, Advising

1. Quiz: Burnett and Evans, DYL Chapters 1 and 2
2. Special Guest: SB Wolbrom, Associate Director, Career & Professional Development, Burwell Center
3. Advising reminders: Registration for Winter 2027 begins Oct. 26.
4. I’ll hold mentoring sessions over the next week.
   • You’ll need to meet with me to discuss your HWPL dashboard, your first quarter at DU, your winter schedules, your questions.
   • Consult the Office of Academic Advising’s First-year Advising resources and drop-in advising sessions
   • Consult the Registration checklist and use the Advising Resources on the course website
5. Meet at Illegal Pete’s at noon for class on W 10/21: lunch!

• Due: W 10/21, 11:59am: Discussion Post 4: DYL Compass and Lifeview/Workview reflection in Canvas/Assignments.

Wk 6.2 – Walker, Lopez, Pipeline

1. Walker and Lopez Quiz
   
2. Exam 1
3. Discuss readings
4. Screening: How to Blow Up a Pipeline
5. HW: Read Burnett and Evans – DYL (Designing Your Life) Chapters 1 and 2 

Week 6.1 – Leopold, Kerouac

1. Quiz: Leopold, Kerouac
2. Preservation & Conservation redux: Student Conservation Assoc
3. Jack Kerouac – need a summer lookout job?
4. Aldo Leopold
5. How to Blow Up a Pipeline
6. Extra Credit: Chief White Antelope’s Song TU 10/13, 7:30, free

Wk 5.1 – Muir and writing strong eco-critical claims

• Quiz – Muir’s “Windstorm in the Forest”
• In-class Screening: The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Disc 2, Episode 2.
• Disc 2 Episode 2: 
  • 28mins-33mins: Muir as wilderness prophet, appeal to govt for preservation, create Sierra Club
  • 48mins – 52: Pinchot and conservation, Muir, Cronon on conservation and preservation as “two sides of same coin”
  • 1:50 – 2:08 Muir “nothing dollarable is safe,” Hetch Hetchy valley controversy, Muir “temple destroyers…dam Hetch Hetchy, might as well dam the people’s churches”, SF earthquake and fires, conservation and preservation redux
• Making strong eco-critical claims
• Assign: take home Exam 1, due at midnight on W 10/7 in Canvas.

Wk 4.2 Chavez, Cisneros, Grizzly Man

photo of Denise Chavez

1. Quiz: Chavez and Cisneros
2. Discuss Chavez, Cisneros
3. Grizzly Man – clips: 0:00-30:40; 42:28-46:00; 1:34.50-end
4. Brandon Teck, DU’s Issues to Impact (i2i) cohorts
5. Making strong claims as eco-critics

Exam 1 is next week. It is a take home exam. I will give it to you M 10/5 and it’s due W 10/7 at midnight.

It is a combination of passage identification questions and essay questions. The exam will cover the readings we have done so far, including Berry, Wright, Standing Bear, Owens, Dunbar-Ortiz, Hogan, Chavez, hooks, Cisneros, Muir, and the eco-criticism essays, as well as the documentaries about the Sand Creek massacre, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Migration, and Grizzly Man.

The passage identification portion will ask you to identify the author and text of important passages from the readings and then briefly explain the quote’s significance. Here’s an example of passage identification:

“There is about them no awareness, no acuteness, and it is this dullness that gives ugly mannerisms full play.”

Answer: Standing Bear, “Nature.” He is discussing how white youth are raised, in contrast to native youth, who are alert to their surroundings. One result is that white boys hang out on street corners and jostle one another, instead of developing an awareness for and alertness to the natural world.

The essay questions will ask you to synthesize the material and to use your skills as eco-critics. Your exams will be graded according to the quality and thoroughness of your answers, including the complexity of your main claims and the use of texts to support them with specific examples. It is worth 80 points (20% of your final grade).

To study, I would suggest the following:

• If you haven’t read everything, complete the readings. If you have, re-read and refresh your thoughts as necessary, especially Wright.
• Think about the role of interconnectedness in each of the texts: in what ways are the characters, the environment, the eco-systems, and the communities connected to one another?
• Go back through the texts and consider how nature and human nature are represented in each of the texts: analyze as an eco-critic.