Abstract

Environmentalist David Orr lamented some twenty years ago that universities “still educate the young for the most part as if there were no planetary emergency” (27). This emergency, as Reflections readers are well aware, refers to the shifting and collapse of massive ecosystems and agricultural systems because of human-caused pollution and climate change coupled with exponential population growth. The planetary shifts call on us to reconceive our positions as activists, scholars, and teachers in relation to our communities, to the earth, and to one another. These shifts provide an opportunity for us to rethink the stark and often arbitrary distinctions between our research, teaching, and service or between our colleges and universities and our communities. Students and fellow community members need to be prepared for, and feel agency in, our changing world. In many ways, higher education has heeded Orr’s call.

Journal
Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
Published
2016-09-01
DOI
10.59236/rjv16i1pp3-13
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (12) · 2 in this index

  1. College English
  2. Natural Discourse: Toward Ecocomposition
  3. Ecology, Writing Theory, and New Media
  4. Postcomposition
  5. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Show all 12 →
  1. New Degrees Focus on Climate Change, Sustainability
    USA TODAY
  2. Majoring in Food: Colleges Offering More Courses, Degrees
    Good Food Vanguard/Civil Eats
  3. Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America
  4. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect
  5. Composition and Sustainability: Teaching for a Threatened Generation
  6. Climate Change Studies Program
  7. Ecocomposition