I have been an active listener, and an average comment-maker. I have been actively working on talking more in class though, without being too careful about whether what I had to say was "good enough."

On-line, I got really into my site-sit responses. Out-of-doors in our excursions I was very excited to be part of the activities. In-class, I could have worked more on having points to make, but did try to comment building off of other people's points and bring another perspective into use.

The site-sit experiments were very personal, as were my ways of approaching them. But after class, a friend and I would always dissect what had gone on in class and we would talk about postings on Serendip. Some of these conversations might have been mentioned once or twice in a post, but could have been mentioned more. 

I hoped, especially in my Web Papers, to contribute by choosing different topics, especially in Web Paper 3 my wish was to expose to poetry in a differing cultural context. I wanted to bring a part of South Asia into the very (and perhaps understandably, since its what we know best?) U.S. based discussion.

This semester is about to end, but I’ve really loved taking my classes. It is still hard to believe that I’m in college, not to mention the fact that I have just finished a college semester. Ecological Imaginings has certainly gotten me up to speed on ecology, and importantly, the ecology of college. While not everything in the class has dramatically changed my life, my perceptions of college and of ecology have changed, and I have been pleasantly surprised by a lot of the course material.

            The two units of the class that have really changed my outlook are the ecofeminism and the ecocritique units. Both of them have made me a lot more critical of how I view the environment and how I think about how humans interact with the environment and what we could be doing better. The ecofeminism unit has also been making me think even more about how women are treated in our society, and the connections between women and the environment, especially the similarities between how women and the environment are treated. In between all of our very clearly environmentally-related work, I really enjoyed reading Fun Home, and because it wasn’t like anything else that we read in class, the discoveries I made about it and how ecological the book is impacted me even more.

Hira Ismail

Final Web Paper # 4

Hello, everyone! I posted my thoughts on my portion of a teach-in here: /exchange/song-ourselves but comments don't have a picture uploading option, and I was having some troubles "copying" my photos. Thus, here they are now!

My experience in this class this semester was very interesting. I was constantly comparing my experience in the class with Sara Gladwin's, who felt entirely different about the course than I did. To me, I felt as if all the class members were getting incredibly close. This was my smallest class this semester- by about two or three people. Maybe because of this, I felt as if I got to know everyone incredibly well, more than I did for any of my other courses. Yet I know Sara felt as if she didn't know anyone, which was frustrating for me. I kept wishing she could appreciate the closeness I felt to the other class members. But I also completely understood where she was coming from. That didn't stop my experience from being tinged by her experience, though, just as I'm sure my experience effected hers.

As for the readings, I often felt as if the class discussion totally changed my entire perception of the text. I would often read articles on my own and feel and feel completley fine with them- I agreed with the author's statements, I understood what they were saying. I had little critique. But then I would come to class and during the discussion, somehow find problems I hadn't picked up on. Or, I would become frustrated that we were just reiterating the same arguments over and over again. I guess part of my frustration was good- it means I was critically thinking about the text. But sometimes discussing the same issues repeatedly tested my limits. I particularly felt this with Terry Tempest WIlliam's work, for some reason. 

Both Sarah and I agreed that we do not have linear thought processes, but in an effort to indulge in divergent thoughts we recorded a very unstructured conversation about our ecological project, which including some of the sounds we have recorded while working together. For our project we both led each other on a blindfold sound tour, and led one another to a place of our choosing while recording. I was torn because I ended up needing to cut at least 20-30 minutes from the conversation because the entire recording was over an hour long and it was just too long to listen to. When I have the opportunity I will upload the rest because I think it is an interesting conversation, but I kept what I thought was the most relevant.

Can’t believe it’s all over now. I have to say this the best semester for me ever. For the first time, I wish I could stay longer on this train. The three aspects of this course really echo with each and create the optimal learning dimension for me to have the opportunity to explore something I always want to explore more. The discussion and other component of the courses create this 360 frame to examine the topics evolved around voice, silence and vision.

Voice: