Digital Commons Network^™

The Living Earth: A Nineteenth-Century Latter-Day Saint Perspective, J. Michael Hunter

J Michael Hunter

By studying the worldview of Mormons living in the nineteenth century, we can better understand their interpretation of nature and their relationship to it. For Mormons of that era, the earth was alive and deeply affected by the attitudes and actions of the humans living upon it. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints spoke frequently of the earth, its nature, and its relationship to humanity. They referred to the earth in anthropomorphic terms. It was a living orb endowed with intelligence and feelings. The earth’s life paralleled that of the humans who lived on it. So entwined were the lives of the earth …

Brushfire, Ariel Gordon

The Goose

“Brushfire” concerns itself with how people use urban forests, from indecent exposure to poaching to teenage drinking party-bonfires that get out of control. Though it could be construed as a manifesto on walking-in-the-woods, it also touches on some of the conflicts inherent in urban/nature experiences.

At Home And At Large In The Great Plains: Essays And Memories, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This volume presents fourteen essays (some updated) that originally appeared in Prairie Fire, a monthly free newspaper that for seven years (as of 2015) has carried important messages of social, environmental, and economic issues in a mature and nonpartisan manner to tens of thousands of residents of Nebraska, western Iowa, eastern Colorado, and southern South Dakota, and by mail to subscribers in the rest of the world. These essays discuss the North American east-west ecological boundaries, spring migration events, birds at the bird feeder, feathered survivors of a glacial past, the threatened sharp-tailed grouse of Nebraska and South Dakota, and …

Creation As Art, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"If we consider God an artist, we should study His technique, the elements of balance, proportion, repetition, and variation in what He has made."

Posting about experiencing God through interacting with nature from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

Subduction Zone By Emily Mcgiffin, Kelly Shepherd

The Goose

Kelly Shepherd's review of Subduction Zone by Emily McGiffin.

Ordinary Hours By Karen Enns And Lake Of Two Mountains By Arleen Paré, Lisa M. Giles

The Goose

A 'double' review of two new poetry publications from Brick Books: Ordinary Hours by Karen Enns and Lake of Two Mountains by Arleen Pare.

Green Space, Luralyn M. Helming

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Our time spent looking at, experiencing, and engaging with nature improves our lives."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the psychological benefits of time spent outdoors from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/green-space/

Effect Of A Wildlife Conservation Camp Experience In China On Student Knowledge Of Animals, Care, Propensity For Environmental Stewardship, And Compassionate Behavior Toward Animals, Sarah Marie Bexell

Sarah M. Bexell, PhD

ABSTRACT EFFECT OF A WILDLIFE CONSERVATION CAMP EXPERIENCE IN CHINA ON STUDENT KNOWLEDGE OF ANIMALS, CARE, PROPENSITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP, AND COMPASSIONATE BEHAVIOR TOWARD ANIMALS by Sarah M. Bexell The goal of conservation education is positive behavior change toward animals and the environment. This study was conducted to determine whether participation in a wildlife conservation education camp was effective in positively changing 8-12 year old students’: (a) knowledge of animals, (b) care about animals, (c) propensity for environmental and wildlife stewardship, and (d) compassionate behavior toward animals. During the summer of 2005, 2 five-day camps were conducted at 2 zoological …

Sustainable Deathstyles? The Geography Of Green Burials In Britain, Richard Yarwood, James D. Sidaway, Claire Kelly, Susie Stillwell

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

In the context of a wider literature on ‘deathscapes’, we map the emergence of a new mode of burial and remembrance in Britain. Since a ‘green’ burial ground was established in Carlisle in 1993, sites for so-called ‘green, ‘natural’ or ‘woodland’ funerals have proliferated. There are now over 270 such sites in Britain. Drawing on a postal and email survey sent to all managers/owners and visits to 15 green burial grounds (enabling observations and semi-structured interviews with their managers), we chart their growth, establishment and regulation and describe the landscapes associated with them. This requires, and leads to, wider reflections …

Home Country, Ron Geatz

Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal

In northern Australia, a new generation helps to heal their homelands. Standing atop the red cliffs of Fish River Gorge in Australia’s Northern Territory, it’s difficult not to indulge in a fantasy of nature primordial. More than 100 feet below, fish are clearly visible in the crystalline water. Flocks of squawking white cockatoos soar through the riverine forest, and wallabies dart in and out of view.

Giant Steppes: Protecting Mongolia's Grasslands In The Face Of A Mining Boom, Joshua Zaffos

Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal

Amar Purev, a square-jawed preserve ranger with a no-nonsense demeanor, peers through binoculars from the window of an SUV as it bounces along a double-track path through a green-and-golden sea of hip-high grass. He spots only a few gazelles in the distance, but when the vehicle crests a hill, it halts: fifty yards away, hundreds of gazelles and their calves graze on stipa, or feather grass. Before Purev can open his door, the animals take off, coursing 40 miles per hour across the flat and boundless expanse that reaches to the horizon. This grassy ocean is Mongolia’s Toson Hulstai Nature …

Natural Predators, Marie-Claire Churchouse

Theses and Dissertations

Natural Predators is a collection of short stories that take place in various countries including Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, and England. Though the stories are not explicitly linked, they share themes of violence, power dynamics, and the failures of community. The collection begins with the story that features the youngest protagonist, and ends with the eldest. Food, animals, and the human relationship with nature are also major themes throughout the collection.

Digital Natives: The Nature Of Technology On College Student Mental Health, Nicole Crump

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

Anxiety and depression are consistent issues experienced amongst college student populations in the United States (American College Health Association, 2013). However, there is limited research on what contributes to the cause of increased student reports of anxiety and depression. While there are many contributing factors to a student’s experience of anxiety and depression, little to no research has looked at the effect of social media and nature on college student anxiety and depression. The researcher has provided a literature review on the benefits and barriers of nature and technology use on college student’s health. The researcher conducted a multivariate correlational …

B> Be Greater Than., Eric S. Mullis

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The written portion of this thesis is designed to accompany the visual portion of this thesis as a didactic product catalog. The written portion of this thesis links consumer experiences to the upholding of a hierarchical definition of human identity that promotes the exceptionalism of specific human individuals over nature (as a broad category and property of things) in order to justify its exploitation.

Citing Foucault’s writings on biopower, the early development of the scientific method, the development of consumer culture during the turn of the 20^th century, and contemporary examples of consumer culture, I will argue that global …

Cultural Entropy: A Grounded Theory Study Of Early Childhood Experiences In Nature In The Arroyo Grande Creek Watershed, Nathaniel Miles Millard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Through support from a Quinney Fellowship and the Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University, the theory of cultural entropy emerged as an explanation for changing behavior across generations of people living in the Arroyo Grande Creek watershed. Through a trounded theory methodology data collection around early childhood experiences with nature leading towards positive civic engagement with the community, the theory of cultural entropy emerged along with a policy recommendation for reconnecting the community to the local watershed.

Lifelong residents participating in the research were found to have high levels …

Addressing Nature Deficiency With Outdoor Classrooms, Leah Ann Sullivan

Masters Theses

Currently, a vast majority of elementary aged children are nature deficient. [1] They attend six to eight hours of school five days a week, have limited independent outdoor access due to safety concerns (example: congested neighborhoods with high traffic volume, a fear of being kidnapped, crime rates), health concerns like asthma, and spending more time indoors with technology devices. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, explains, "Nature-deficient disorder describes human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses." [2] This lack of …

Psychology And The Bible: A Word To The Wise, Janelle Wong

Education Undergraduate Research

The nature versus nurture controversy has been a topic of debate for many years. Although modern psychology does not directly examine the concept of wisdom, it does attempt to examine the idea of intelligence. Modern psychologists have proposed various positions either supporting one side or the other. Most psychologists agree that intelligence is determined by both heredity and the environment. Conversely, the Bible only provides evidence for the environmental influences of wisdom. Although modern psychology views intelligence as being both genetically and environmentally influenced, the Bible views wisdom as being gained through experience.

Shopping Cart Pastorals And A Nature Poem, Gary Barwin

The Goose

Poetry by Gary Barwin

Asterisms, Erica N. Kenick

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ASTERISMS is a collection of lyric poetry that seeks to express a sense of awe for the natural world by exploring themes of science, art, and the self. By combining physics and metaphysics, scientific terminology and musings on love, ASTERISMS argues that these seemingly-disparate fields of knowledge can harmonize in unexpected ways.

In its style, the collection draws from the works of Dorianne Laux, Pablo Neruda, and Annie Dillard. Most of the poems are written in free-version and are tied together by images of astronomy and wilderness, both modern and prehistoric. Poems about classical music appear as interludes meant to …

Ecologies Of The Moving Image: Cinema, Affect, Nature By Adrian J Ivakhiv, Edie Steiner

The Goose

Review of Adrian J. Ivankhiv's Ecologies of the Moving Image: Cinema, Affect, Nature.

“For It Acordeth Noght To Kinde”: Remediating Gower’S Confessio Amantis In Machinima, Sarah L. Higley

Accessus

Visual adaptation of a medieval text, as tempting as it is in film of any kind, is never an easy conversion, and all the more so if the original is as formally structured as John Gower’s Confessio Amantis. This essay examines the philosophy and difficulties of making a “medieval motion picture” (animated and narrated by the author) reflect the message of three of Gower’s tales (“The Travelers and the Angel,” “Canace and Machaire,” “Florent”) as well as the multimedia properties of the manuscripts that house them, their illuminations beckoning us into colorful virtual worlds. In referencing theories of adaptation, …

Nature And The "Dark Pastoral" In Goethe's Werther, Heather I. Sullivan

Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research

Celebrating the natural harmony of the stream, grasses, and the beautiful wellspring where the peasant girls come to fetch water in Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1774), Goethe’s eponymous hero embraces pastoral nature with a passion. He partakes in a traditional pastoral setting of rustic, idyllic landscapes rife with “simple” peasant folk, happy children, and agricultural pursuits far from the complexities of urban or courtly life—at least in the first part of the novel. This idealized pastoral framework with its peaceful green hills and valleys appears isolated from—or, more precisely, abstracted from—the urban sites where …

Philosophy And Law: An Interpretation Of Plato's 'Minos', Steven Thomason

Articles

Plato's Minos presents a twofold argument. In part it is a facile defense of law directed at a typical Athenian citizen. On another level, it is a sophisticated teaching that ponders the question what is law for the would-be philosopher or student of Socrates. These arguments are made in three parts. First, it becomes clear that Socrates' interlocutor has been influenced or corrupted by the teachings of sophists. Second, Socrates attempts to reform the interlocutor's opinion of law by suggesting there is a science of law. Finally, Socrates argues that present day Greek laws are derived from the oldest Greek …

The Nature And Importance Of Self-Regulation In Early Childhood: Factor Structure And Predictive Validity, David Hammer, Edward Melhuish, Steven J. Howard

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 17th European Conference on Developmental Psychology, 8-12 September, Braga, Portugal

Physical Activity In Nature And Children's Mental Health, Stephanie Marcia Bless

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between children's physical activity and wellbeing, and if that relationship is enhanced by physical activity in nature. This study was a non-experimental retrospective multi-informant data review conducted at an outpatient pediatric psychiatric clinic in the Northeast. The theoretical framework used to guide this study was the Health Promotion Model, suggesting Advanced Practice Nursing investigate the relationship between health promoting behaviors and personal factors that support mental wellness in children and protect against mental illness. Data collected included age, sex, and exercise and wellbeing subsections of the Vermont …

'How To Sex'? The Contested Nature Of Sexuality In Japan, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

There has been a tendency in English and other European-language reporting on Japan to stress the strangeness and otherness of Japanese values, particularly in regard to sexuality. Reports of Japanese immorality go back as far as the sixteenth century when the first Jesuit visitors to the country were appalled by open displays of cross-dressing and male-male sexual relations (Cooper 1965). After the ‘opening’ of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century, Victorian visitors were alternately intrigued and shocked by the government-regulated prostitution that took place in Japan’s many pleasure quarters. Commentators have noted how the figure of the geisha, in particular (albeit …

Signal Eight Times: Nature, Catastrophic Extinction Events And Contemporary Art, Su Ballard

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Human animals bought up in the Western tradition tend to describe their encounters with other species as exchanges of power, and when confronted with extinction rush to the defence of the species at risk. This essay documents a different approach to the defence of nature. Basing itself on the work of six contemporary artists and drawing on the thought of Donna Haraway and Gregory Bateson I show how it is possible to comprehend the catastrophic extinction of birds in New Zealand by thinking about ecology. I argue that rather than defend nature, these artworks stage small moments of encounter, which …

Of Wilderness, Forest, And Garden: An Eco-Theory Of Genre In Middle English Literature, Barbara L. Bolt

Theses and Dissertations

“Of Wilderness, Forest, and Garden: An Eco-Theory of Genre in Middle English Literature” proposes a new theory of genre that considers the material elements of the natural environment in Middle English literature composed between 1300-1450 CE. Instead of treating the setting as just a backdrop for human activity, I posit that the components of the environment play a role in the deployment of the narrative by shaping the characters and influencing the action. More than an acknowledgement of the particular natural features, this study explores the role that these components play and how they give us a deeper understanding of …

Out Of The Closet And Into The Woods; Nature As A Model For Resilience During Gay Identity Development., Lance Johnson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Navigating the process of coming out led to feelings of isolation, depression, and a loss of self-worth that were compounded by a period filled with negative social media and mainstream messaging. This thesis explores how an understanding of the systems and processes of nature as well as physical exposure to nature offered a place of healing and an avenue for understanding my identity as a Gay man: from identity confusion all the way through to identity synthesis. Using Scholarly Personal Narrative Methodology, I will interweave poetry and counter narrative storytelling to illustrate the significance of nature during my identity development. …

Human-Nature Relationship And Faery Faith In The American Pagan Subculture, Sarah Goodrich

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Within American religious culture, there is a small but significant and growing movement that overlaps and interacts with the environmental movement. It's known by many names, including Contemporary Paganism, Neo-Paganism, Earth Religion, and Nature Religion. A few years of observation at Starwood Festival, the largest annual Pagan gathering in North America, revealed that many individuals who identify as Pagan (or Wiccan, Druid, animist, or another of the identities that fall under the Pagan umbrella) include in their spiritual practice engagement with faeries or other nature spirits. My research employed qualitative methods including participant observation and interviews to examine the extent …