FIELD STUDIES IN ENVIRONMENT & HISTORY

Transcription

1 FIELD STUDIES IN ENVIRONMENT & HISTORY Environmental Studies 193EH/History 197P University of California, Santa Barbara Spring 2011 Instructor: Peter Alagona Contact: Office Hours: HSSB 4231, TBA Time & Place: M 3:00-5:50 PM, Girvetz 1106, plus field trips OVERVIEW This course will provide an introduction to California s environmental history and the methods scholars use to study it. Environmental history is the study of how humans have interacted with their environments over time through science, technology, politics, law, culture, and material relationships. Students in this course will conduct extensive readings, contribute to seminar discussions, participate in workshops, and take a series of field trips UC natural reserves and other key sites in California s environmental history. The goals of this course are for you to: 1. Gain a broad understanding of California s environmental history, including key events, trends, and factors that have shaped the state s landscapes over time 2. Develop the skills to conduct original research in environmental history 3. Write a high quality research paper that could serve as a writing sample for graduate school or the basis for further study COMPONENTS Seminars: Each week we will meet for a seminar discussion or field trip. Seminar discussions will be based on the readings, and will usually include a California landscape history topic, and a research or writing methodology topic. Field Trips: During the quarter, you will participate in three field trips. The field trips are required. Dates are listed in the schedule on the next page. Attendance: You must attend all seminars and field trips. Any unexcused absence will result in a failing grade. I will only give exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Reading: You must read all of the assigned materials for each week before class. Final Paper: The term paper will include 4 components: an elevator pitch, proposal, presentation, and final essay. We will discuss the final paper process throughout the course, and you will have several opportunities for feedback. In terms of basic requirements, the paper should be 15 to 20 pages long, double spaced with standard margins and fonts. The paper should be based on your own original research, and it should use both primary and secondary sources. You should choose a topic that allows you to explore some aspect of California s environmental or landscape history. Final Grade: participation (30%), elevator pitch (10%), proposal (10%), presentation (10%), final paper (40%).

2 2 SCHEDULE Date Week Topics Assignments 3/28 1 Agenda and logistics Introduction to California environmental history None 4/4 2 Narrative & landscape Archival research Visit to UCSB Special Collections Week 2 readings 4/11 3 Coastlines Field work for historians Field trip #1: Coal Oil Point Reserve (M, 3pm 6pm) Week 3 readings 4/18 4 Wetlands and waterways Proposal writing workshop Week 4 readings Elevator pitch 4/25 5 Forests Interpreting primary sources Week 5 readings Proposal 5/2 6 Rangelands Oral history Field trip #2: Sedgwick Ranch (M, 8am 4pm) Week 6 readings 5/9 7 Mountains Repeat surveys & photography Paul Sutter guest lecture (M, 5pm 6:30pm) Week 7 readings 5/16 8 Cities Historic and current maps Visit to UCSB Map and Imagery Laboratory Week 8 readings 5/23 9 Deserts Giving Feedback: A peer reviewing workshop Week 9 readings 5/28-5/30 10 Conclusions & wrap-up Term paper presentations Field Trip #3: Southern California transect (3 days) Presentation 6/6 Finals Final paper due on Monday, June 6 th, by 3pm, in the Environmental Studies office, Bren Hall, 4 th floor. Final paper

3 3 READINGS Required Text: (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998). *You should order the book from Amazon.com or some other on-line seller. I will provide all other readings as PDF attachments one week before we discuss them in class. Week 1 March 28: Agenda and logistics No reading. Week 2 April 4: Introduction to California environmental history Narrative & historiography Archival research Visit to UCSB Special Collections Donald W. Meining, The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene, in Donald W. Meining et al., eds., The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp Denis Cosgrove, Prospect, Perspective and the Evolution of the Landscape Idea, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 10:1 (1985), pp William Cronon, A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative, The Journal of American History 78:4 (March 1992), pp Week 3 April 11: Coastlines Field work for historians Field trip #1: Coal Oil Point Reserve (3pm 6pm) Connie Chiang, Shaping the Shoreline: Fisheries and Tourism on the Monterey Coast (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010), pp. ix-xiv, Paul Sabin, Beaches Versus Oil in Greater Los Angeles, in William Deverell, Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), pp Anita Guerrini, The Trouble with Plovers, in Martin Drenthen, Jozef Keulartz, and James Proctor, eds., Visions of Nature: Complexity and Authenticity (New York: Springer 2009), pp

4 4 Week 4 April 18 Wetlands and waterways Proposal writing workshop *ELEVATOR PITCH Norris Hundley, The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, 1770s-1990s (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), pp Robert M. Wilson, Directing the Flow: Migratory Waterfowl, Scale, and Mobility in Western North America, Environmental History 7:2 (April 2002), pp Eric D. Stein et al., Historical Ecology and Landscape Change of the San Gabriel River and Floodplain, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project Technical Report #499, February Week 5 April 25 Forests Interpreting primary sources *PROPOSAL DUE (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), pp ; 5-8, 12-14, 67-73, Jonathan K. London, Common Roots and Entangled Limbs: Earth First! and the Growth of Post- Wilderness Environmentalism on California's North Coast, Antipode 30:2 (April 1998), pp For discussion of primary sources: (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), pp. 5-8, 12-14, 67-73, Week 6 May 2 Rangelands Oral history Field trip #2: Sedgwick Ranch Reserve (8am 4pm) (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), pp Peter S. Alagona, Homes on the Range: Cooperative Conservation and Environmental Change on California s Privately Owned Hardwood Rangelands, Environmental History 13 (April 2008), pp

5 5 Week 7 May 9 Mountains Repeat surveys & photography *Paul Sutter guest lecture, 5pm 6:30pm David Beesley, Reconstructing the Landscape: An Environmental History, , in The Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project: Final Report to Congress, Volume 2, Chapter 1 (Berkeley: University of California Regents, 1996), 24 pp. Lary M. Dilsaver, Conservation Conflict and the Founding of Kings Canyon National Park, California History 69:2 (Summer 1990), pp Peter Walker and Louise Fortmann, Whose Landscape? A Political Ecology of the Exurban Sierra, Cultural Geographies 10 (October 2003), pp (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), pp , Week 8 May 16 Cities Historic and current maps Visit to UCSB Map and Imagery Laboratory Jared Orsi, Flood Control Engineering in the Urban Ecosystem, in William Deverell, Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), pp John McPhee, Los Angeles Against the Mountains, in William Deverell, Land of Sunshine: An Environmental History of Metropolitan Los Angeles (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), pp Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear (New York: Vintage, 1998), pp Jennifer Price, Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in LA, The Believer (May 2006). Peng Gong, Remote Sensing and Image Analysis, chapters Week 9 May 23 Deserts Giving Feedback: A peer reviewing workshop (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998), pp Peter Alagona and Clint Smith, Review and discussion of draft essay on the history of, and current environmental issues in, the Mojave Desert of southeastern California.

6 6 Week 10 May 30 Conclusions & wrap-up *TERM PAPER PRESENTATIONS Field Trip #3: Southern California transect (2 nights) Finals Week June 6 Final essay due on Monday, June 6 th, by 3pm, in the Environmental Studies Program office, Bren Hall, 4 th floor. FIELD TRIPS All of the field trips are mandatory, including the 3-day, 2-night excursion over Memorial Day weekend. The field trips will take the place of the normal class meeting for that week. Before each field trip, I will provide you with all of the necessary logistical and administrative information. The first trip will visit Coal Oil Point Reserve, just west of Isla Vista. The second will visit Sedgwick Ranch Reserve, in the Santa Ynez Valley. The third will visit a series of diverse sites representative of Southern California s environmental and landscape history, from Los Angeles to the Coachella Valley to the San Jacinto Mountains.