Environmental Humanities

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find resources of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. - Rachel Carson

By drawing widely from skills and disciplines such as writing (creative non-fiction, journaling, essays, environmental journalism, poetry, and fiction), digital media, film, drawing, painting, and other representational means, students engaged in Environmental Humanities seek creative ways to combine knowledge of cultural and ecological perspectives. Through hands-on, practical application of humanistic approaches to environmental issues, this field can empower students in meaningful experience in areas such as natural interpretation, advocacy, environmental justice, and the arts.

 Students pursue study with faculty in literature, writing, and the arts while immersing themselves in a vibrant and environmentally-focused learning community. Independent studies complement a broad liberal arts curriculum that emphasizes interpretation and expression of local, regional, and global issues.

A Selection of Courses

For those students interested in self-designing a major in Environmental Humanities please visit the Self-Designed Major page and the course catalog for specific course descriptions.

A Reverence for Wood

One of Sterling’s most popular elective courses, Reverence for Wood focuses on the design and creation of projects using wood. Students learn a range of woodworking techniques through individual projects using hand and power tools. Over the course of the spring semester, each student designs and builds a wood joinery project to be exhibited at the annual Sterling College Wood Show in April.

Fiber Arts

Students in Fiber Arts attain fluency in animal fiber vocabulary, sources, history, traditions, economic and social impacts of production and manufacture, and global and local connections. Labs introduce methods of fiber selection and preparation, spinning, dyeing, and manufacture. The main goal of the class is to acquire the skills to turn fiber into yarn, felts, and knit fabrics. By the end of the course, students are able to finish technically correct, functional projects.

Black River Sketches: Art of the Black River Watershed

This class will focus on creating art related to the landscape of the Black River Watershed. It is open to students with any level of experience with art. The class will employ a combination of on-site art making, discussion, individual meetings and group critiques to facilitate the understanding and the practice of making landscape art. We will focus primarily on the activities of drawing and painting. Specifically we will spend time painting and sketching in the field. We will attempt to organize our work around salient features of the local landscape with brief field trips in the Black River Valley, which flows from our own backyard to Lake Memphremagog on the Canadian border.

Nature Writing

At the heart of the Nature Writing course lie such questions as: What does it mean to represent the non-human world through language? What role do language and literature play in our understanding of the relationship between humans and our physical environment? This course explores traditional and contemporary nature writing in order to examine the ways in which this genre—and its cultural function—has changed with our increased awareness of the influence of humans on the non-human world. Texts include the work of such writers as Henry David Thoreau, Janisse Ray, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Snyder, Michael Pollan, Jamaica Kincaid, Annie Dillard, and Edward Abbey (as well as selected films). Reading and discussion are complemented by regular writing, through which we analyze examples of literary nature writing, as well as consider our own experiences of and insights about the world around us. Written projects include keeping an informal journal and writing both analytical and creative essays. We will spend significant time outside the classroom.