Discoveries Day #1, W 9/2 in XXX

1. Welcome!
2. 4D Peer Mentors: Phoebe Bono and Aaron Stoa
3. Introductions, Overview of Discoveries Week orientation, Phone policy.
4. FSEM.
5. General Ground Rules: phones, breaks, bathroom, speaking (louder than usual) and listening, laptops
6. Pairs and Small Group Intros

• Get to know your partner and be ready to introduce them. Discuss:
• Hometown, Dorm (or living arrangements), Time Commitments beyond school, Languages
• Why DU?
• Why did you choose your FSEM?
• What burning question do you have about DU, Denver, academics and/or campus life?
• What are the differences between professors and HS teachers in terms of job responsibilities?

Homework for Th 9/3: Read: To Professor at University To Professor at Univ

Rest of Week:

Th 9/3, meeting with Prof. Benz and 4D Peer Mentors  

1. 1. Meet in XXX. Bring laptops. We’ll answer more burning questions, we’ll discuss the To Professor reading, your schedules, and begin advising, degree audits, etc.

Fri, 9/4

• • 10:45-11:15 – drop-in advising w/Benz on roof of Community Commons
  • 11:15 am – lunch (get your lunch and meet on the 4th floor patio of Community Commons – on the westside).
  • 12:00 – Lawn games and Sweet Cow ice cream on campus from 12-3 by Mary Reed Hall.

Ecocriticism, 2013 definition

In the last 20 years, ecocriticism has developed from its early incarnation as the relatively under-theorised preserve of nature writing enthusiasts to its current vibrant state as a sophisticated array of ‘earth-centred’ approaches to cultural criticism that mobilise and reframe theories drawn from a range of disciplines including ecology, philosophy, sociology and biology. Ecocriticism’s diversity also extends to engaging with a variety of literary forms as well as, increasingly, film, TV, digital environments and music, and to an interest in representations of the urban. At its heart is the conviction both that we are living in a time of ecological crisis that requires us to reassess with some urgency our modes of being in the world and that our cultural perceptions of ‘nature’ and the ‘human’, and the relationship between the two, have to a large degree been responsible for these damaging modes of being. Its role is to interrogate and critique these perceptions, even within environmentalism itself, with some ecocritics also committed to exploring alternative ways of conceptualising our relationship with the non-human world.

Marland, Pippa. “Ecocriticism.” Literary Compass Vol 10 Issue 11, Nov. 2013.

Welcome to With and Without Nature!

This site contains course materials for Brad Benz‘s First Year Seminar at the University of Denver.