2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

Conventional pedagogical approaches to environmental studies have historically pertained to resource conservation and wilderness preservation, however, recently such approaches have been called into question by the polarizing social and political conditions in the U.S. While more people are seeking outdoor experiences, less of them are people of color. What is more, while environmental studies programs are growing in popularity, they overwhelmingly attract white students. To make matters worse, the political climate in Washington has put additional stress on environmental studies programs by cutting funding, discrediting sound environmental science, and encouraging students of color into more traditional disciplines. At a moment in time when we need the strongest, most diverse presence of environmental studies in academia and politics, we face a lack of ethic representation in the classroom (for both students and instructors). This paper uses ethnographic narratives collected from students to illustrate the importance for students to cultivate "narratives of place" to instill a sense of urgency, accountability, and empowerment for the next generation of environmental activists. This study found that by broadening traditional pedagogical approaches of environmental studies to include the experiential learning of place making, students of color legitimize their own preexisting knowledge and challenge themselves and others to better understand difference. The transformative potential of new subjectivities ushered in by experiential knowledge ignites a sense of place for students who then feel more empowered to deal with the complexity of forces acting on the environment. The findings suggest that while environmental studies is currently one of the least diverse disciplines, the classroom can become a site of inclusion when students have the opportunity to derive meaning from their own lived experiences and ways of knowing.