Document Type

Report

Project Title

NatureCulture: Interdisciplinary Ecologies and Place-Based Writing for Student Success

Principal Investigator

Dr. Kerry Neville

Publication Date

2026

College or Department

College of Arts & Sciences

Funder

Office of Academic Affairs

Award Date Range

March 2025-December 2025

Award Amount

5,000

Abstract

The NatureCulture collaborative study abroad course represents a central outcome of the Collaborative Research Grant and has undergone substantial conceptual, curricular, and pedagogical development. While finalization of a site-specific itinerary has been delayed due to unanticipated challenges in securing a stable and academically viable location, the collaborative course itself is fully designed and pedagogically complete. Grounded in interdisciplinary, team-taught instruction, the NatureCulture model integrates environmental humanities, creative writing, intercultural learning, and eco-pedagogy to foster place-based, experiential, and critically reflective learning. Within this framework, faculty have developed complementary courses that collectively serve students across multiple stages of the curriculum.

Dr. Neville’s flexible, multi-level Contemplative Ecology course foregrounds slow, embodied, and attentive approaches to reading and writing, integrating contemplative practices with creative nonfiction, nature writing, and environmental ethics. Emphasizing accessibility through no-cost materials and experiential fieldwork, the course invites students to write from direct encounters with place while maintaining rigorous standards of craft, revision, and ethical engagement. Dr. Fraunhofer’s ENGL 2110: World Literature—More-Than-Human Protagonists offers a globally oriented humanities perspective on human–environment relationships, centering nonhuman agents and examining how ecological change and vulnerability are experienced unevenly across cultures. Dr. Simon’s ENGL 4110: Literary Criticism—Ecocritical Approaches provides advanced theoretical training in ecocriticism, emphasizing transnational perspectives and integrating theory with praxis through structured field engagement and a culminating place-based research project.

The collaborative research underpinning the course draws on the combined expertise of Drs. Neville, Fraunhofer, and Simon in eco-pedagogy, ecocriticism, posthumanist theory, environmental literature, and creative writing. Through conference dissemination, site-based research, and a co-authored article in progress, the project has fulfilled the grant’s core objectives. While site-specific implementation remains contingent on final location approval, the intellectual, curricular, and collaborative foundations of the NatureCulture program are complete and advancing in alignment with the grant’s original aims.

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