Spornicov, "Forest in the Tatras" 1998
Spornicov, "Forest in the Tatras" 1998
Geography 464/564
TREE & FOREST
IN THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
Winter 2007
MW 2:00-3:20 Condon 360
Prof. Shaul Cohen
Condon 107G Tel. 346-4500
scohen@uoregon.edu
Office hours Tuesday and Friday 10:00-11:00
Please note: if there is a warm sunny day we may go outside for class- bring what you need to be comfortable!
This course will focus on a core theme in geography, the
human/environment interaction. Trees and forests will be the
element of the landscape that serves as our vehicle for inquiry,
as we explore the manner in which a natural element has shaped
human societies, and been shaped by them, across time and space.
Our approach will be from the social sciences and humanities,
with a continual flow across culture, politics, economics, and
the mechanics of technology. The course will be broad in terms of
its temporal and geographical emphasis, but will include issues
which are both local and contemporary. We will encounter a
variety of perspectives and value systems, and use them to shed
light on the complexity of the society/nature construct.
Format
Each class will be based on reading and discussion. Periodically we will view
short films in class. These are not part of the university collection, and
cannot be made up, thus absence has an additional cost. There will be two tests for the course, one in-class and one take
home. Each student will be required to do a final project on a topic related to the themes of the course as well.
Your grade will be based on an in-class test, a take
home exam, and a final project. These will count for 25, 30, and 30 percent of the grade
respectively. You must make a brief presentation about your
project in class Week 9! Twenty percent of your project grade will
come from this presentation, so don't lose track of the need to prepare early.
The remaining 15 percent of your grade will come from classroom participation.
That's a big chunk, so make sure that you have read the material, contribute to
our discussions, and make your presence felt in the course. I'm happy
to make accommodations for students with special learning needs, please see me asap
so that we may do so.
Reading
Please purchase two books, Terre Satterfield's Anatomy of a Conflict: Identity, Knowledge, and
Emotion in Old-Growth Forests, and
Cohen's Planting Nature: Trees and the Manipulation of Environmental
Stewardship in America. Graduate students please also buy Simon
Schama's Landscape and Memory. We will
also read material available in
a Reader format, online, or on reserve in the library.
SCHEDULE
Week One Read Schama's Introduction and Merchant chaps 1-2 from Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture. The Merchant and Schama chapters are available under the course documents section on the Blackboard page for our course.
Week Two Read Schama Chapter One (grads look at M. Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Chapter 8 "Vegetation: Rites and Symbols or Regeneration")
Week Three Read Landscape and Memory, Chapter Two and Zipes, "Exploring Historical Paths" in The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World
Week Four Read Harrison Chapter 4 "Forests of Nostalgia" from Forests: The Shadow of Civilization. Read also Demeritt's 2001 article "Scientific forest conservation and the statistical picturing of nature's limits in the Progressive-era United States" in Environment and Planning d: Society and Space 19(4):431-459.
Week Five Read Michael Williams, Chapter 1 "The Forest in American Life" and Chapter 12 "Preservation and Management" from Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography" Test on Wednesday
Week Six Read Satterfield, Anatomy of a Conflict Chapters 1-4
Week Seven Finish Satterfield, Anatomy of a Conflict
Week Eight Read Cohen Chaps 1-4, Take-home exam due Wednesday
Week Nine Project Previews Extended Class Sessions This Week 2:00-3:50 Mandatory Attendance!
Week Ten Finish reading Cohen. Read Chapter 9 "Planting a Tree" from Michael Pollan's Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
Your Project is due Monday of Finals Week in the Geography Department Office by 5:00 pm!
Additional Sources
Books
John Perlin, A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization
Alexander Porteous, Forest Folklore, Mythology, and Romance
Book Chapters
Robert Graves, "The Tree Alphabet (1)" and "(2)." In The White Goddess: A Historical Grammer of Poetic Myth. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986 ed.
J.R.V. Thirgood, "The Deforestation of the Mediterranean Basin." In Man and the Mediterranean Forest: A History of Resource Depletion London: Academic Press, 1981.
Articles
Paul Cloke, et al. "The English National Forest: Local reactions to plans for renegotiated nature-society relations in the countryside." Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 552-571, 1996.
Vasudha Narayanan, 'One Tree is Equal to Ten Sons': Hindu Respones to the Problems of Ecology, Population, and Consumption." In Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65(2) 1997.
M.D. Olson, "Re-Constructing Landscapes: The Social Forest, Nature and Spirit-World in Samoa." In Journal of the Polynesian Society 106(4), March, 1997.
Diane Rocheleau and Laurie Ross, "Trees as Tools, Trees as Text: Struggles Over Resources in Zambrana-Chaucuey, Dominican Republic." In Anitpode 27(4):407-428, 1995.
Rosemary Sullivan, "The Dark Pines of the Mind: The symbol of the forest in Canadian literature." In Canadian Literature 67, 1976.
Poems
Ralph Waldo Emerson "Wood-Notes" 1840
Robert Frost "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" 1930
Joyce Kilmer "Trees"
Carl Sandburg "Tall Timber" and "Proud Torsos" 1928
David Wagoner "Elegy for a Forest Clear-cut by the Weyerhaeuser Company" and
"Report From a Forest Logged by the Weyerhaeuser Company" 1976