Middlebury College ENVS0300: Approaching Sustainability from the Roots
During the spring semesters of 2019, 2020, and 2021 as a Professor of the Practice at Middlebury College I designed and taught "Approaching Sustainability from the Roots" in the Environmental Studies Program.
Through literature and classroom guests the course explores ancient texts, indigenous ways of being, social and climate justice, dominant worldviews, systems theories, economics, and social impacts of media. We ask a few big questions to examine today's sustainability practices and movements:
Each student commits to a daily contemplative practice for the semester that includes being in relationship with Lao Tzu's Dao de Jing and journaling. They are asked to integrate these practices with their personal inquiries to make visible the well-being of the individual as a critical root of our inter-dependent and inter-connected universe. The course also includes a mentoring component where each student is matched with a sustainability practitioner for a conversation or two to consider the work and their place. See below for the emergent syllabi and experiences shared during these seminal years in the history of our species. |
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