Living Laboratory
Fall snapshots from Reed’s Environmental Humanities initiative where community, place, and scholarship converge to solve pressing issues of our time.
As a transdisciplinary approach, the environmental humanities seeks answers to questions about the environment and our relationship to it.
“The environmental crisis is, as author and academic Amitav Ghosh says, a crisis of imagination, a failure of cultures to represent or respond to a changing world,” says Professor Sarah Wagner-McCoy [English], principal investigator of the Mellon-funded Environmental Humanities initiative at Reed, “but not all cultures have failed.” By using shared questions to reimagine disciplines, perspectives, and methodologies, Reed’s EH initiative builds on existing strengths in arts and humanities to enage vital questions in both the classroom and the community.
The initiative’s reach extends far beyond what we can show here—from Swinomish camas research to Princess Mononoke screenings under the stars, from mason bee habitat projects to natural dye workshops. Each location on this map offers a glimpse into this web of engagement, where different ways of knowing converge to deepen our understanding of place.
Spaces For Discovery
1. At the Garden House: This reimagined living-learning community serves as a center for environmental praxis, bridging theory and practice, with Sustainability and Environmental Justice (SEJ) Scholar Esmé Kaplan-Kinsey ’24.2
2. Around the Canyon: In Prof. Josh Howe’s History 270, students trace ecological transformation at Reed through archival research and canyon walks with Zac Perry, who led the restoration of the canyon (and addition of the fish ladder) in the ’90s.
3. Under the Oak Tree: In Religion 374, mathematical topology illuminates Buddhist conceptions of cosmic interconnection as students explore knot theory through an activity with Prof. Kristin Scheible [religion] and Prof.Kyle Ormsby [math].
Text & Territory
4. Communal Voyages: At the Performing Arts Building, intergenerational dialogue emerges when alumni join students to explore Melville’s Moby Dick and discuss literary and personal voyages in Prof. Sarah Wagner-McCoy’s English 341.
5. Faculty Incubator: Mellon-funded summer workshops foster innovative pedagogical approaches through collaborative faculty development. Faculty read common texts and share ideas while also working on their own projects.
Writing Reed: In English 206, Prof. Sarah Wagner-McCoy and Prof. Simone Waller guide students in developing research projects based around “place” by engaging with the cultural histories of the Reed campus.
Art & Environment
6. On the Oregon Coast: Maritime histories intersect with environmental studies as blue humanities courses Art 350 and English 341 collaborate to examine art, literature, and oceanic ecosystems in Tillamook on the Oregon coast.
7. With the Joshua Trees: At California’s Prime Desert Woodland Preserve, art practice meets ecological research as Prof. Juniper Harrower leads students to develop new modes of environmental understanding through creative inquiry.