Welcome class of 2015! I hope you have been enjoying your summer and your copy of No Impact Man as much as I have. The book has inspired me to take a serious look at my own life and consider how my choices impact not only me personally, but also those around me as well as the planet. Awareness is always the first step in making change, and I am proud that URI chose this book for the Common Reading program. Not only has it raised our awareness as individuals, but it also demonstrates the University’s commitment to opening dialogues and creating spaces for important conversations on sustainability, responsible consumerism, and activism.
While the title of the book is No Impact Man, the aspect of it that I most enjoyed was reading about how Colin’s family—as a unit—worked together to make a difference. At first I was a bit skeptical of Colin’s discussion of his wife Michelle, but as the narrative continued, it became clear that this was a team effort, and that it was only through each other’s support that they were able to live this experiment. Making change can be incredibly hard, and I appreciated Colin’s honesty in detailing the struggles that they faced along with the benefits.
This fall I will be teaching the large lecture section of Women’s Studies 150: Introduction to Women’s Studies. In this class we spend a good deal of time discussing the problems we face in the world related to gender and unequal access to resources. We also focus on how activism relates to feminism in the desired goal to bring about positive social and political change. Not only will students in the course read a selection from No Impact Man, but all sections of WMS 150 have an action project that requires students to choose a topic related to gender and justice, devise a project plan, and to actually take action through the implementation of their project. While no one’s project has been as extreme as Colin Beavan’s (at least not yet!), students are always amazed at how much they are able to accomplish and how good it feels to get out and make a difference.
I would love to see you all in WMS 150 at some point during your college career, but even if not, I hope you are all inspired to use your education over the next four years here at URI to make a positive difference in the lives of each other. Best of luck this upcoming year!
Andrew Onofrio:
ReplyDeleteMy family isn't exactly the most enviormentally-friendly one out there. So any change will be twice as hard. I think that there should be programs, for low and high income families alike to change their habits.
What exactly is "Women's Studies" who takes it, and why isn't there men's studies?
ReplyDeleteCarolyn St. Vincent:
ReplyDeleteI am taking women's studies this semester! I am going to be a freshman and I am excited about this class. Also, I thought that Michelle and Colin wouldn't be able to work together to complete the project but I was happy to see that it really was a team effort. This shows how Colin couldn't do it alone, he needed Michelle, and now the rest of us need to realize that the two of them can't do it alone, either. It truly is a group effort and the whole world needs to work together as one big team to better our environment and our lives.
I took women studies in the summer during TD and I really enjoyed it. I learned how much women are discriminated and put down because of their gender, class or financial status. Taking this class in the summer give me more reason for wish I should succeed in life, make my dreams come true and be somebody in life. Not just known for a mother or a housewife but known for someone who is standing on her feet with a degree
ReplyDeleteFor the past year, I have been reading articles from Nicholas Kristof, a NY times columnist. His writings focus on the injustices of women all throughout the world, but mostly in undeveloped countries. I am now familiar and aware of these injustices inflicted upon women, and what our society can do to make a difference in these woman's lives.
ReplyDeleteMy passion for empowering and helping under privilaged woma inspired me to take the Womens Studies course this upcoming fall. I am excited that we will be incorporating No Impact Man into the Womens Studies course. Collin Beavan is an activist for fresh living- he believes this concept will ultimately improve the quality of our planet and peoples lives. Collin's enviornmental activism can be compared to womens activism. The more people, especially the women themselves, that speak out for their rights and the cruel injustice inflicted upon them, the more social and political change they will achieve.
From Jenn Brandt:
ReplyDeleteHello again, and thank you to all who have read and/or commented on my post!
Andrew, I completely agree with you that socio-economic factors cannot be ignored when we are talking about activism and environmentalism. We spend a good deal of time in WMS 150 discussing economic disparities in relation to a host of issues, including education, health care, and social justice. While I like your idea about programs aimed at low- and high-income families, what I would really like to see are deep, systemic changes that address the source of these disparities.
Carolyn, welcome to URI and welcome to Women’s Studies! I look forward to meeting you this fall.
Geraldine, I am glad you had such a positive experience with Women’s Studies this summer. I hope you consider taking more classes with the program.
Anonymous, great questions! The question I am asked most often by students (and strangers) is “what is women’s studies?” Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that was developed in the 1970s in response to the lack of discussion and focus on women and their contributions to the various disciplines in the arts and sciences. In addition to investigating and highlighting the achievements of women in a variety of fields, Women’s Studies is also concerned with identifying, understanding, and challenging ideologies and institutions that knowingly or unknowingly oppress and exploit others, or deny fundamental human rights. Growing from this discipline has been the emergence of gender studies, which seeks to examine the ways that ideas about the social relations of women and men structure our politics and culture and the ways in which we all experience our world. In Women’s Studies, we spend a good deal of time exploring the way that gender is socialized in society and the material consequences this has on the everyday lives of men and women. Who takes Women’s Studies? At URI, each year over 600 students (both men and women) take WMS 150, with another 1100 students enrolled in other Women’s Studies and WMS cross-listed courses. So, just about everybody and anybody on campus can, and does, takes Women’s Studies courses; we are a thriving program with over 40 majors and close to 50 minors. As to your last question about “men’s studies,” well, you’ll have to take WMS 150 to get the full answer to that question, and if you are really interested in the topic, there’s always WMS 360: Men and Masculinities.
The lecture sounds interesting and I might actually check it out. I also thought that it was fascinating how Colin described the way that his family worked together in order to achieve the same goal.
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