2008-09 Focus

What is the Critical Encounters Focus for this coming school year?

Critical Encounters: 2008-09 Focus:Critical Encounters: Human|Nature invites your participation and contribution in the 2008-09 academic year.  We will extend the conversations of the past two years to include not just human relationships but also the human relationship with the natural world. 

Critical Encounters: Human|Nature will examine the relationships and tensions between humankind and the natural world and will consider how factors such as the culture, wealth, geography, and history of societies have influenced humanity’s stewardship, exploitation, understanding, and artistic representations of the natural environment.  It will investigate how past actions have resulted in local and global environmental crises and weigh potential solutions. Human|Nature will survey how societies either choose to collectively protect their shared resources or retreat from cooperation and the impact these decisions have had on humanity and human rights.  Human|Nature will also gauge the impact of the natural world on human development by considering how nature has shaped the shared human experience as well as exploring the degree to which individual values, qualities, and desires are either naturally imbued or socially nurtured.