Literature for the North Woods Project

The texts we are readings this semester are written by women and men who have an initimate relationship with nature and their natural environment. The works they have written capture and preserve this relationship for modern readers. These texts also give us a greater appreciation of our own environment, awakening us to the wonders of the natural world in which we live. As works of art, they do more than imitate or represent nature; they change how we perceive the world.

Like Isabella Bird and Henry David Thoreau, Bill McKibben and Terry Tempest Williams, many members of the Skidmore and Saratoga Springs communities--especially students--retreat into the woods, our own North Woods surrounding the campus. The purpose of the "Literature for the North Woods" project is to connect our natural surroundings to our academic work, to find creative ways in which the literature we are reading in EN 229 can enhance our experience of going into the woods. Whether individual or collaborative, your "Literature for the North Woods" project will be a creative project, drawing upon course readings and resources and your own imagination to heighten our appreciation and understanding of the North Woods. The projects may take many forms, such as a

photographic journal with captions from excerpts of the course readings
audio or video podcasts recording the experience of walking in the Woods
your own original writing or artwork

The Literature for the North Woods project is a semester long project, with the completed project due at the end of the semester. Although we will discuss the project frequently throughout the term, I will ask you for formal plenary work twice during the semester: Thursday, 24 October and Thursday, 16 November, as noted on the syllabus

To learn more about the North Woods, please visit these sites

	Campus Environment Committee: The North Woods
	"Whose woods these were." A short history of the North Woods. Kathryn Gallien. Scope Winter 2001.
	"Whose woods these are." Kathryn Gallien. Scope Spring 2001.
	Skidmore North Woods Trails
	Environmental Studies at Skidmore College: The North Woods
	Skidmore North Woods