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.

Wk 4.1 hooks’ Touching the Earth

bell hooks

1. Quiz: hooks’ “Touching the Earth”
2. In Class Screening: Great Migrations, Episode 1 (2025) featuring Henry Louis Gates, Jr: 2:34-11:57
3. University Writing Center
4. Site Journal updates
5. Discuss hooks, the Great Migration
6. Grizzly Man

Week 3.2: Eco-criticism

1. Kurzweil 3000 – text to speech reader and more (login w/your DU Microsoft credentials)
2. Career and Internship Fair tomorrow, CCOM 1-4
3. Quiz on What is Eco-criticism? essays by Cook, Dean, Glotfelty, Scheese, and Slovic
4. What is Eco-Criticism?
5. Screening: Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
6. Groups: Eco-critical analysis of Owl Creek Bridge, eco-critical claim
7. HW:
   • Due Friday: Discussion post 3 due Friday: Eco-critical analysis of Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
   • Before class Monday: visit site and submit Site Journal #2 (identify flora and fauna before the leaves fall), read hooks’ “Touching the Earth”

Wk 3.1: Wright’s Down By the Riverside

Richard Wright

1. Quiz: Wright’s “Down by the Riverside”
2. Career and Internship Fair: Th 9/24 in CCOM 1-4pm
3. PBS’ The Great Flood of 1927 is helpful, including the vintage footage.
4. US National Archives: Coverage of the 1927 flood
5. The Weather Channel’s documentary contains more footage and expert talking heads. (17:45)
6. Cool version of the spiritual “Down by the Riverside” featuring Grandpa Elliott from Playing for Change.
7. In-class screening: Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke (2006) via DU library/Films on Demand database. Pt 1: 17:11-21 mins; 36:50-54

 

Wk 2.2 – Hogan, Dunbar-Ortiz, Sand Creek

Source: Brent Learned (Cheyenne and Arapahoe descendant), Sand Creek Massacre

1. Quiz 2: Hogan, Dunbar-Ortiz
2. Day 1 question: how’s the music scene in Denver? See Westword
3. Career Fair | Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students & Alumni | Thursday, Sept. 24 from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. | Community Commons. More info.
4. Discuss: Hogan, Dunbar-Ortiz, Sand Creek
5. Sand Creek Massacre, November 28, 1864 (PBS)
   • Screening in class: 0-9mins, 25:41-41, 43:58-44:26, 46:20-49:30
   • DU John Evans Report: 2014 Report
   • Conclusion of Report’s Executive Summary:[Governor of the Colorado Territory John] Evans’ actions and influence, more than those of any other political official in Colorado Territory, created the conditions in which the massacre was highly likely…
   • For more on Sand Creek, see Dunbar-Ortiz, Ch. 8, especially pgs 136-138
6. Settler colonialism in series of maps. Based on work of Dr. Sam Hilliard, LSU.
7. HW for M 9/21:
   • Read: Wright’s Down by the Riverside (62 pages)
   • Visit your site for site journal. Follow the advice from Standing Bear, Hogan.
   • Site Journals: read examples

 

Wk 2.1: Standing Bear, Owens, and Genesis

if you know, you know…

1. Quiz 1: Standing Bear, Owens, Genesis Ch 1-3
2. Discuss Standing Bear, Owens, and Genesis
3. Site Journal 1: Peer review
4. Schedule your advising appointment with Chris Spangler sometime in the next 3 weeks
5. Activate your NY Times subscription
6. Same for your Wall Street Journal subscription
7. HW for Weds:
   1. Read: Hogan’s “Walking”;
   2. Read: Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous People’s History of the US: “Introduction: This Land” (pages 1-14) and “The Genocidal Army of the West” (pages 136-140)

Wk 1 Day 1 meet in Chambers Center 360

1. FSEM syllabus and schedule
2. RIP: Wendell Berry
3. Office of Academic Advising is available for quick question drop-ins all week, Monday through Friday, from 9:00-11:30 AM and 1:00-4:00 PM in Community Commons 3100.
4. Canvas/Account/Notifications
5. Assign: Naturalist’s Site Journal
6. HW: Read Standing Bear, Owens (both in Canvas/Files) and Genesis Ch. 1-3
7. HW: Site Journal #1 

Discoveries Day 3

Friday 9/4:

• 10:45-11:15: (optional) drop-in advising conferences with Prof. Benz on Community Commons rooftop.
• 11:15am: Lunch with class on rooftop patio of Community Commons.
• 12:00: on the lawn in front of Mary Reed Hall: Sweet Cow ice cream and games

Discoveries Day 2, Th 9/3, 1:45-3:15 in Knudson 100

• Read and discuss: To Professor at Univ, Expectations and Concerns
• Burning Qs
• Advising 101 overview.
• The Goal: Earning your degree.
• Email advice
• Advising Resources and Advising Overview
• Common Curriculum: completed by all DU undergraduates
• DU 2026-27 Undergraduate Bulletin answers your questions about requirements, course descriptions, DU policies.
• Solo Activity: Using my.du.edu

1. Open the Common Curriculum Handout
2. In another browser window, open the Undergraduate Bulletin
3. Find your Autumn course schedule. Check the buildings, rooms, times. Ensure you’re registered for 12 credits minimum, and not more than 18 credits. Check for course numbers in the 3000/4000 range (junior/senior level)
4. In my.du.edu – Search for Degree Audit in Search Bar
5. Run a Degree Audit
6. Check your current classes for Common Curriculum course “attributes” (AI Society, etc) (hint: cross-reference using the Undergraduate Bulletin)
7. Check your AP, IB, and transfer credits on Degree Audit – if you have any
8. Fill-in the Common Curriculum Handout based on your schedule and any transfer credits (Canvas/Files)
9. If you know your major, visit that Department’s homepage on the du.edu and find their undergraduate degree program and any advising guides

• FERPA (your rights to privacy as an 18 year old).
• Free live music off campus: Levitt Pavilion (through October + close to DU)

Fri 9/6

• 11:15 bring your lunch to the 4th floor patio of Community Commons. Eat with the class.
• 12:00 walk to Mary Reed for Sweet Cow ice cream and games
• 10:45-11:15 If you want to discuss your autumn schedule or other pressing matters, please sign up for an optional conference with me. I’ll be on the top floor rooftop patio of the Community Commons building.