This interview is not the first in Reflections for Tom Deans, a Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at the University of Connecticut. His first interview appeared in issue 1.1 of Reflections and focused on his work as chair of the recently created CCCC national service-learning committee dedicated to creating “disciplinary momentum” around service learning. He has a career-long interest in community-engaged writing and research, and served as both a Senior Editor and the Book Review Editor for Reflections over several years. In this interview, he reflects on the beginning of Reflections, the emergence of composition’s interest in service learning, and the growth of institutional support and recognition of community engagement. Overall, he finds that despite its early modest aspirations, the field’s trajectory has resulted in a large amount of exciting and important work, and provided a “real viable pathway” for educators who want to build a career around community engagement.

Literacy is often conceived as the literacy of community members, but rarely as these members’ literacy of their communities. Although our sense of community has become increasingly separated from geography, our local environment is a critical resource for developing the eco-literacy necessary to imagine sustainable futures. The Green Map® movement offers a model for how educators can encourage such literacy through engagement with the local community. Green maps are maps of local green-living resources, including sites of cultural, natural, and civic significance. These maps are created by local citizens with support from the Green Map® organization, which has inspired a new era of grass-roots cartography. By involving students in the production of green maps, educators can encourage an ecoliteracy that is grounded in the local community and focused on designing shared visions of responsible co-existence.