Sharad Chari & Leonora Zoninsein
What might it mean to write for or with the Earth, or alongside earthly processes that surround us? This course explores geography as literally the practice of “Earth-writing,” through a set of weekly writing assignments and a final “environmental essay” on living with fragile earthly futures. We meet each week to consider a particular spatial or environmental narrative form, such as the colonial travelogue, the indigenous testimony of loss of land and attachment, the urban photo-essay, the intimate memoir, the imagination of alien worlds, the poetics of writing with plants, the neighborhood or community map, and the imagination across the bay and the oceans. This course stretches your imagination as we work collectively on linking social science and writing skills necessary for our times.