Thursday, August 9, 2012: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
B110, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Frederick J. Swanson, USDA Forest Service, Pacific NW Research Station
Co-organizer:
Nalini Nadkarni, University of Utah
Moderator:
Frederick J. Swanson, USDA Forest Service, Pacific NW Research Station
The objective of this Session is to inform the ESA community of the fruitful and natural collaboration of arts and humanities with environmental research, education, and outreach programs at sites with a long-term commitment to learning about the natural world and our place in it. This interdisciplinary work has expanded scientists’ views of the significance of their own work and enhanced the scope and depth of public outreach. Collaborations among arts, humanities, and environmental sciences are developing within the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER), the US Forest Service’s system of Experimental Forests and Ranges, the Organization of Biological Field Stations, and other sites that are dominantly arts/humanities based. Rich bodies of work in creative writing, visual arts, and performance are emerging from these programs, and networking among these sites for sharing and synthesis activities is beginning (http://www.ecologicalreflections.com/). The media employed have been diverse – poetry, fiction, essay, visual arts, dance, song, theater, environmental history – and programs have been delivered to diverse audiences. The Session includes case studies from LTER sites, perspectives from native cultures and environmental philosophy, and an overview of current networking activities. Both this session and an ESA workshop
WK 35 - Engaging Arts/Humanities with Long-Term Research and Education Programs: Outcomes, Approaches, Networking (Tuesday Aug. 7, 11:30 AM -- 1:15 PM) are intended to encourage audience members from suitable programs to undertake such work within their own ecological and societal contexts.