Fifteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The current environmental and political state of the U.S. and the world demands that scholars in the humanities push themselves beyond the classroom and push their students to succeed both within and beyond academics. In a university-wide course like the fundamental writing course I teach at the University of Vermont (“Written Expression”) there is ample opportunity to allow students with a wide variety of academic backgrounds and vocational interests to invest these passions into the wider community. As a composition instructor, I incorporate a variety of assignments, discussions, and pedagogical strategies in order to encourage my students to see themselves as a part of the community in which they live, while also teaching them the writing skills necessary to succeed in university. Once a student can see and understand the community they belong to, it becomes easy for the instructor to change their actions and lead them to invest their time, energy, and identity into the economic, cultural, and environmental wellbeing of their community. This paper explores the intersection of the practice of writing and the practice of sustainable living, while suggesting pedagogical strategies for teaching sustainability in a required first-year humanities course.