May 17, 2015 - 17:42
Ecological Imaginations is probably one of the best classes I have ever taken at Bryn Mawr College. I have never taken a class so ecological before. I loved the weekly site-sits because that became my solace. I have definitely learned to think more ecologically not just in the holistic approaches to nature, being connected by systems and communities – but also in the varied ways in which I can express my ecological thoughts. I have written papers, drew pictures, made videos, and taken photos to express my ecological concerns about what we have been talking and reading about in class. I will definitely be challenging myself in how I want to represent my thoughts and ideas as oppose to writing in future classes.
I enjoyed reading The Lives of Animals by J. M. Coetzee the most. The book challenged me to think differently about my understanding of identity, environment, and imagination. Elizabeth Costello's lectures ere very powerful. Her analogy between the holocaust and the exploitation of animals made me feel a little uncomfortable. She compared what people faced in the death camps to what animals faced in industries that bring them pain and death. This analogy was hard for me to imagine because I had trouble embodying myself in those lives of animals. I did not want to imagine the pain they must feel and this reason was enough for me to have sympathy for them.
Overall, I have been very present-and-contributing in our class discussions (more in small discussions than in large). When I do offer my thoughts and ideas in big discussions, I feel like I have an interesting perspective to bring onto the table. I contribute in large discussions in every class, but not as much as I would like to contribute. It was more challenging for me to talk to a bigger audience because of some personal conflicts and reasons. I wish I could have contributed more in larger group discussions, but I loved small group discussions. I was paired with Ariel numerous times. We have a lot in common and it was interesting to see how similar our ideas and thoughts were about a certain topic.
It has been a pleasure taking this class with everyone. I am quite a good listener and I am also really good at observations, so I am appreciative to see how everyone grew and expanded in their thinking. I like listening to my peer’s ideas and thoughts about what we talked about in class and I hope to expand our class discussions outside of campus by talking and photographing people in a dense urban area about what they think about their relationship to their environment for my forth event. In hope of my wish to contribute more in larger group discussions, I hope this forth event fulfills that.