Taught By:
Cristin Ellis
Associate Professor of English and Co-Director of Environmental Studies
English Department
University of Mississippi
Read profile here.
Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I am developing a new course on environmentalist writing and communication and I'd like to design a capstone project for that course that involves designing and launching a social action campaign related to an environmental/environmental justice concern on campus or in the Oxford/Lafayette community (or beyond).
Course Description:
[This course is in development, so the following is draft language that has not yet been finalized and approved.]
This course will highlight the vital importance of environmental writing and communication to the fight for a just and livable environmental future. There is a common assumption that environmental sciences hold the key to our environmental future. However, at a recent climate summit, the Presidents of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineers stressed that now, far more than even researchers, it is skilled communicators and connectors who are needed. In this hybrid critical and creative course we will study a variety of genres of environmental writing, including imaginative writing (such as nature writing and climate fiction), fact-based writing (eg. science writing and environmental journalism), and activist writing, rhetorics, and media. Along the way we will ask ourselves what audiences these forms of environmental communication reach, whose experiences are represented, and what challenges they face in their efforts to inspire, persuade, or motivate their audiences. We will also experiment with writing in these genres ourselves, and we will workshop and revise our efforts. The final weeks of this course will be devoted to designing and launching your own campaign in environmental communication, aimed at effecting social change on campus or in our North Mississippi community.
