Environmental collapse permeates our lives, creating anxiety, depression, helplessness, anger. One known path towards healing and towards collective action is to come into a more tangible relationship with our environments. This begins with what we call ecological attention: A deepened focus on relationships among organisms and environments. When we leave our labs, screens, and classrooms to move out into the world, we ground our sense of ecological health/unhealth in the experiential as well as the theoretical. We reawaken awareness of ecological beauty, strangeness, and complexity, including the sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste of the environments that house and sustain us. This deepened awareness leads to a desire for care. A desire for care leads to a desire to act. Ecology, Attention, Action.
What?
With support from the College of Arts and Sciences Expanding Horizons Initiative, we're hosting a monthly discussion group centered on this concept.
Who?
Open to all (students, faculty, staff, community members, visitors).
When?
About once a month on a Friday in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, 12:45-2pm (CWRU "Community Hour"). 10/11, 11/8, 12/6, 1/17, 2/14, 2/28, 4/11, 5/9
!! Register for Fall meetings you want to attend, see below !!
Where?
Classroom-based meetings held at 11635 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH (click here for a map), room 140. Excursions take place at nearby locations, details below.
Register
Optional but appreciated, click here to register.
Type
Excursion plus lunch. Meet at 11635 Euclid Ave for a quick lunch and short walk around the area. You'll meet plants growing in the neighborhood and engage in an "active looking" practice facilitated by Fey Parrill and {to be added}.
Ecological Attention Focus
Looking. How does shifting our visual attention allow us to reconnect to nature? How can this reconnection awaken a sense of love, and facilitate physical, mental, spiritual, and community well being?
Reading
If you have time, click here to read this piece by Joanna Macy.
Macy, J. (1995). Working through environmental despair. In T. Roszak, M. E. Gomes, & A. D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind (pp. 240-259). Sierra Club Books.
Other notes
To be added
Register
Optional but appreciated, click here to register.
Type
Excursion. Meet in Harkness Classroom, which is located in Florence Harkness Memorial Chapel, 11200 Bellflower Road Cleveland, Ohio (click here for map). Lunch will be served, followed by a short urban sound walk. (A sound walk is a walk with a focus on listening to the environment.) After returning to the classroom, we'll do attention exercises (courtesy of the composer Pauline Oliveros). Facilitated by Francesca Brittan.
Ecological Attention Focus
Listening. How do we perceive and process sound? How do music, noise, silence, and natural soundscapes impact our physical and mental health?
Reading
None!
Other notes
Parking: Guests are encouraged to park in the Campus Center Parking Garage (Lot S-29) when visiting campus (click for map). This garage is underground and the public entrance is located at 11172 East Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44106.
Register
Optional but appreciated, click here to register.
Type
Classroom. Meet at 11635 Euclid Ave, Room 140. Lunch provided. Note any dietary restrictions when you register. You'll learn about research on the intersection of religious/spiritual beliefs and nature connection, facilitated by Joshua Wilt, Julie Exline, Sudi Harbool, and Anastasia Frank.
Ecological Attention Focus
Feeling. How do our religious and spiritual beliefs impact what we attend to, how we feel, and how we make sense of the world.
Reading
None!
Type
To be added. A discussion facilitated by Tim Beal and {to be added}.
Ecological Attention Focus
Feeling.
Reading
Other notes
To be added.
Type
Excursion. Meet at the Cleveland Museum of Art (specific location to be added). You'll tour the Rose B. Simpson exhibit Strata (click here to learn more), in a discussion facilitated by Andrea Rager and Car Aldana.
Ecological Attention Focus
Looking. How can seeing works of art through an ecocritical lens help us make sense of and address the climate crisis?
Reading
Other notes
Type
A discussion facilitated by Nárcisz Fejes and {to be added}.
Ecological Attention Focus
Touching, and Tasting. How can attention to food and food systems facilitate nature connection and systems change?
Reading
Other notes
Type
Classroom. Reflecting on our work.
Ecological Attention Focus
All modalities. What have we learned together about looking, listening, feeling, tasting over the course of our meetings.
Reading
Other notes
To be added.
Type
Classroom. Wrap up. Where do we want to go next? (Happens after classes have ended.)