This integrative and interdisciplinary course seeks to engage students in the analysis of contentious public issues (focused particularly on natural resources) using multiple disciplinary lenses. In so doing, students are challenged to apply their disciplinary training and the knowledge and skills developed through Longwood’s academic core curriculum (i.e., General Education) to evaluate the ways in which citizens have addressed these difficult issues. They practice the application of skills, particularly writing for the public arena, toward greater understanding and appreciation of the civic issues and the lives of active citizens. This course is taught in an “off-campus” mode just prior to and during traditional second summer session. The course opens in the week after spring final exams (i.e., “senior week”) with a series of on-campus class sessions. During that period, presentations by the faculty/staff and required activities will engage all students face-to-face and through Canvas. The second week of class takes place in Alaska, and it affords students opportunities to experience firsthand the ecosystem and the management issues. Activities in Alaska are carefully structured and focus on students’ interaction with a variety of stakeholders. Students are required to take their laptops on the trip so that they can complete writing assignments in the evenings. Upon returning home, the focus of the course shifts from a shared learning experience to individual analysis of selected issues. An intensive analysis assignment requires students to identify and research a resource issue of importance and apply what they have learned through their Alaska experience to the issue. Resource management is not simply an issue of science to be left to scientists. It is a complex issue that involves interest groups, politicians, social movements, political parties, bureaucrats, and concerned citizens fighting with one another in order to gain power and influence. To facilitate engagement in this complex environment and to help students realize their democratic potential, this class focuses on the issues of citizenship and democratic participation and confronts resource management from multiple perspectives. In a world with over 7 billion people, there are countless issues that could be studied to demonstrate the importance of effective resource management and good citizenship. In this course, we focus on several such issues of immediate relevance and importance in the remote North Country of Alaska. Specific issues to be studied through critical readings, evaluation of public documents, and first-hand field experiences include the Trans-Alaska pipeline, the movements of wildlife, bioprospecting in thermal features, and recreational activities. It is an objective of this class that students will use these Alaska issues as models for understanding how to consider, evaluate, and engage resource management problems in their local communities in the future. Since Virginia faces its own environmental problems and natural resource challenges, attention will be paid to applying multi-disciplinary knowledge to the resolution of local and regional needs. In participating in this process, students develop a sense of political efficacy – that is, a belief that they can make a difference – by practicing the skills needed to engage in political and community affairs. One of the aims of the course is to help us find “common ground,” both among persons who have different backgrounds and perspectives in the real-world contexts with whom we engage while in Fairbanks and Northern Alaska and among those of us with different disciplinary expertise who may examine the same subject matter from very different points of view. To provide a framework for exploring the issues in Alaska and to aid in finding common ground, the course is structured around a set of interwoven interdisciplinary “threads” (listed below). The student’s task is to develop an appreciation of each thread and, as importantly, to develop an understanding of how they relate to one another – in their connections, their overlap, their divergence. Some threads may seem more familiar than others – after all this is an interdisciplinary course being taught for General Education. Each student also brings a perspective from her/his major and life experiences to the activities in which we engage. Learning to value and appropriately apply all of these perspectives strengthens the student’s ability to understand and address complex public issues as citizens. The course is designed to help you:
• Develop an understanding and appreciation of the physical landscape
• Observe wildlife and understand management issues related to various species
• Develop an understanding of the relationship between the landscape, local communities, and attitudes toward management issues
• Develop skills in observation, research, and oral, visual, and textual presentation
