Watersheds for Place-Based, Experiential Education

FAIN: AA-284590-22

University of North Carolina, Greensboro (Greensboro, NC 27412-5068)
Aaron S. Allen (Project Director: May 2021 to present)
Karen L. Kilcup (Co Project Director: December 2021 to present)

The development of an environmental humanities curriculum based on the Cape Fear River in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The Cape Fear Watershed Project (CFWP) is an environmental humanities approach to place-based teaching and learning. Using watersheds to reflect on social connections and human relationships in and with nature, the CFWP increases our sense of place to improve care for human and non-human life. Focusing on the online M.S. in Sustainability & Environment, we will integrate humanities practices in a summer field course, three new topics courses, and flexible online modules, as we unify the M.S. curriculum via the theme of the Cape Fear Watershed. We will also: 1) bring faculty and students together in places studied in courses; 2) build connections between people, institutions, and places in the watershed, especially UNC Greensboro and UNC Wilmington, situated in the headwaters and near the mouth of the watershed, respectively; and 3) emphasize humanities approaches in sharable curricula and resources with regard to topics that are usually the purview of the natural and social sciences.