Since the field of Ecocriticism extends to experiential learning and pedagogies of place, the English Department's Environment and Pedagogy Initiative has funded a number of course-related outings. Some result in research papers or multimedia projects exploring and theorizing contemporary issues in the local environment. Recently, Sally Shivnan's class, ENGL
375: Imaginative Writing in the Land of Harriet Tubman's Childhood,
took a field trip to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern
Shore.
Students got their hands into lichen and moss and their noses
into the salt marsh, and they visited the museum at Harriet
Tubman Underground Railroad State Park, with its exhibits detailing how
Tubman led other slaves on dangerous journeys through this landscape
many times in her quest for freedom. The
course will culminate in creative work informed by students' research
into Tubman's life, but also deeply informed by their intimate
experience of this complex, haunting, wild land.
