Cultures of Nature Final Response Paper (RP6, 4-5 pages)
Due: 5:00 PM Wednesday, December 16
Option 1: Your Personal Cultures of Nature Manifesto
Manifesto = a public declaration
of the views, aims, intentions, opinions of a person or group
Option 1 for the final response paper is an energetic vision, an articulation and final word on the issues raised in the course. Here you declare and assert your own ideas about nature, and how humans and nature are to coexist now and into the future. The paper should clearly integrate/bounce off/offer homage to some of the texts and ideas discussed in class as well as our out-of-class experiences, and could also incorporate relevant outside source material and perspectives. But the dominant voice and vision in this manifesto comes from YOU. This is your chance to synthesize some of what you have learned in the course, as well as a chance to tackle something you’ve not yet been able to address in a sustained way. The work may proceed from writing you have already done for the course (but be expanded and transformed) or it may be something entirely new. Use graphics, images, or quotes as appropriate, and citations and reference list.
Option 2: Story of a Place and You
Option 2 is your own personal written version of the Story of Place assignment. This is your chance to tell perhaps a more complete or somewhat different Story of Place, as well as to address something that didn’t make the final cut or that others in your group voted down for one reason or another. The paper may be about the same place as the video or a completely different place (about which you have done similar layers of research). This paper may also proceed from writing you have already done for the course blog (e.g., the research log reports). As in your video, your paper should tell an engaging story of change, including historical details and demonstrating knowledge and perspectives on both nature and culture, with connections to some of the texts and ideas discussed in class. What is different here is that you should account for change in YOU as connected to the place. Use graphics, images, or quotes as appropriate, and citations and reference list.