This paper explores the potential of fieldbooks as vehicles for interdisciplinary place-based studies.   In my teaching and practice, the fieldbook is a means by which to read and write the world—past, present and futures. Fieldbooks, in this sense, allow one to engage simultaneously with the world, literatures, and the arts as a propaedeutic to environmental ethics toward an embodied and performative sustainability. I am curious about how people (e.g., students and community members) get to know places, and the various ways they express this; as well (and perhaps more importantly), I am interested in how fieldbooks might enable/empower people to act on what they learn about places (i.e., toward sustainable presents and futures). Fieldbook investigations include writing, collage and montage, drawing, photography, analogue and digital tools, and even performative expressions. Currently, I am developing a proposal for a book about fieldbooks: one that traces the genealogy of fieldbooks; bridges disciplinary thinking in community planning, environmental studies, and geography; and presents a daily practice for reading and writing places.   In this paper I will present my past and current fieldbooks research and practice, both of which are multi- scalar, multi-sensory, and interdisciplinary. It is my intention to provide insights into fieldbook practice and contribute to a dialogue about place-based studies and sustainability.

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