Teaching

Teaching Interests

I regularly teach a range of undergraduate and graduate courses that concern the environmental humanities, literary nonfiction writing, and sustainability studies. Previous courses I have taught include a large, introductory lecture course on environmental science, policy, and management; several smaller lecture and discussion courses on environmental communication, the history of the idea of nature, American environmental history and literature, and the relationship of science and religion; and a variety of interdisciplinary graduate seminars. Many of my courses include field experiences and involve colleagues in the Twin Cities environmental community. I also frequently give guest lectures on a wide range of environmental subjects.

Undergraduate Courses

ENGL 1007: Introduction to Literature and Environment (Fall 2026)

ENGL 1928: Imagining Environmental Futures (Fall 2026)

ENGL 3501: Public Discourse: Coming to Terms With the Environment (Spring 2026)

HSEM 3025H: Food, Clothing, Shelter: The Culture and Politics of Simple Living (Spring 2026)

ENGL 3071: The American Food Revolution in Literature and Television (Spring 2025)

GCC 3025: Seeking the Good Life at the End of the World: Sustainability in the 21st Century (Spring 2023)

• This MinuteEarth video on The Great Acceleration describes the trends that GCC 3025 addresses and includes a shout-out to our course at the end!

ENGL 3885V/W: Capstone Seminar: Environmental Literature (Fall 2021)

ENGL 3883V: Honors Thesis (Spring 2020)

HSEM 2025H: Sleeping, Eating, Loving, Dying: The Practice of Everyday Life (Fall 2016)

HCOL 3805H: Honors Challenge: Our Common Waters: Making Sense of the Great Lakes (Spring 2014)

SUST 3003: Sustainable People, Sustainable Planet (Fall 2012)

ENGL 1905: Writing from Plow to Plate: Sustainable Food Narratives in the U.S. (Fall 2010)

ENGL 3090: The Environmental Imagination in 19th-Century America (Spring 2010)

ENGL 3027W: The Essay (Spring 2009)

WRIT 3302: Science, Religion, and the Search for Human Nature (Spring 2008)

ESPM 1011: Issues in the Environment (Fall 2006)

RHET 1315: The Land in American Experience (Fall 2005)*

RHET 3383: In Search of Nature (Fall 2004)*

Graduate Courses

ENGL 8290: After Modernity: Visions, Values, Tactics (Fall 2025)

ENGL 8090: Ecocritical Food Studies (Spring 2024)

ENGL 8090: Contemporary Literature and the Environment (Spring 2023)

ENGL 8090: Ecocriticism and the Environmental Humanities (Fall 2020)

ENGL 8090: Transatlantic Environmental Humanities (Fall 2015)

ENGW 5106: Advanced Literary Nonfiction Writing (Fall 2010)

ENGL 5150: The Environmental Imagination in 19th-Century America (Spring 2010)

ENGL 8090: Whose Nature? The Environment in Humanistic Inquiry (Fall 2009)

ENGW 8130: Writing of Literary Nonfiction (Spring 2009)

ENGL 8200: Ecocriticism and American Literature (Spring 2008)

RHET 8520: Narrative, Values, and the Urban Environment (Fall 2006)*

RHET 8012: Ecocriticism (Fall 2005)*

RHET 8520: The Rhetoric of Biodiversity (Fall 2003)*

RHET 8520: Worldviews and Ecology (Fall 2000)*

RHET 8520: Rhetoric, Ethics, and the Environment (Fall 1999)*

RHET 8520: Environmental Rhetoric (Winter 1999)*

Teaching Honors and Awards

Arthur "Red" and Helene B. Motley Exemplary Teaching Award, College of Liberal Arts, 2022

Horace T. Morse–University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, 2017

Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, 2001

Science and Religion Course Award, Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, 1999

* Syllabi available by request